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Division    'B^  W  *^  (o 
Section     .4-.  SGB 


RELIGION   IN  THE    MAKING 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO 
ATLANTA   •    SAN    FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE    MACMILLAN    CO.    OF   CANADA,    Ltd 

TORONTO 


THE 


RELIGION      IN 
MAKING 


A  Study  in  Biblical  Sociology 


SAMUEL  G.  SMITH,  D.D.,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

HEAD  PROFESSOR  OF   THE    DEPARTMENT    OF    SOCIOLOGY    AND  ANTHROPOLOGY 
IN   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF   MINNESOTA. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1910 

AM  rights  reserved 


Copyright  1909 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Printed  January,  1910 


THE  MASON-HENRY  press 

SYRACUSE,  NEW  YORK 


FOREWORD 

For  nearly  twenty  years  I  have  been  teaching 
sociology  to  the  upper  classmen  in  the  University 
of  Minnesota.  During  about  the  same  length  of 
time  I  have  been  teaching  the  Bible  to  special 
classes  in  connection  with  the  Peoples  Church  of 
St.  Paul.  It  was  not  until  ten  years  ago  that  the 
thought  occurred  to  me  that  there  is  anything  in 
common  between  these  two  departments  of  labor. 
About  that  time  I  formed  the  opinion  that  sociology 
might  prove  one  of  the  best  instruments  for  the 
interpretation  of  the  Bible,  and  that,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  Bible  might  prove  to  be  one  of  the  best 
sources  of  sociological  material.  My  subsequent 
studies  have  been  largely  influenced  by  this  con- 
clusion. During  two  winters  I  pursued  the  joint 
study  with  selected  companies  of  students.  The 
work  seemed  so  promising  that  four  years  ago  I 
offered  work  in  biblical  sociology  to  my  classes  in 
the  university.  This  book  is  a  condensation  of  a 
part  of  the  work  done  in  the  university  classes. 
The  survey  of  the  subject  will  be  completed  by  an- 
other volume  in  the  course  of  preparation  dealing 


vi  FOREWORD 

with  the  domestic,  poHtical,  and  industrial  life  of 
the  Hebrews.  I  have  avoided  notes,  debates,  and 
citation  of  authorities,  in  the  interest  of  brevity  and 
clearness.  Acknowledgrpent  of  obHgations  to 
various  authorities  will  be  made  in  the  bij^liography 
which  accompanies  this  work.  The  book,  however, 
is  a  fresh  study  at  first  hand  of  the  Bible  in  the 
light  of  the  principles  of  sociology.  So  far  as  I 
know,  the  term  "biblical  sociology"  was  first  used 
in  my  announcements.  It  has  since  been  adopted 
by  two  or  three  other  writers. 

Samuel  G.  Smith 
St.  Paul 


CONTENTS 


Chap.  Page 

I.     Some   Aspects   of  the  Religious   Problem..       i 
II.    Science  of   Sociology 15 

III.  The  Social  Value  of  Religion 23 

IV.  Scientific  Views  of  the  Bible 33 

V.  The  Land  and  the  People 41 

VI.  Development  of  the  Idea  of  God 57 

VII.     Sacred  Persons:     The  Making  of  the  Priest..     90 

The  Tribe  of  Levi 107 

Development   of   the    Prophets no 

VIII.     Sacred  Places:     The  Altar 114 

The   High   Places 121 

The    Temple     127 

The    Synagogue    140 

IX.     Sacred  Services  :     Early   Sacrifices 143 

The   Religion  of  Fasting 157 

Ritual   of   the   Temples 162 

X.    Sacred  Objects:     The  Ark 180 

Other    Sacred    Materials 188 

XI.     Sacred  Days    i97 

XII.    Hebrew   Conception  of  Sanctity 210 

XIII.     Some    Resultant    Conclusions 226 

Bibliography 244 

Index  247 


vu 


KELiaiON  IN  THE  MAKING 


CHAPTER  I 

SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THE  RELIGIOUS 
PROBLEM 

The  beauty  of  the  lily  is  not  challenged  because 
it  grows  out  of  the  muck.  The  roots  of  all  the  social 
values  in  the  world  are  planted  in  darkness  and 
ignorance.  Men  have  only  grown  wise  by  the 
rejection  of  their  mistakes.  The  true  interpretation 
of  history  is  not  found  by  emphasis  of  the  ignorance 
and  the  weakness  of  early  men,  but  rather  in 
remembering  that  we  are  forevermore  their  debtors 
because  out  of  their  lowly  experiences  have  grown 
the  beautiful  forms  of  goodness  and  of  truth.  The 
study  of  the  world's  experience  breeds  hope  for 
the  future  because  of  faith  in  the  past.  One  of  the 
greatest  influences  in  modern  life  flows  from  the 
Hebrew  life  and  literature.  The  present  need  is  to 
frankly  acknowledge  our  obligation  rather  than 
to  discover  wherein  the  Hebrew  was  weak  or  at 
fault.  To  discover  what  our  debt  is  to  the  Hebrew 
I  I 


2  RELIGION   IN   THE    MAKING 

people  it  is  necessary  to  investigate  their  history 
and  to  learn  what  ideas  and  institutions  they  have 
given  worthy  of  becoming  part  of  the  permanent 
inheritance  of  the  world. 

Every  age  has  some  religious  problems  and  some 
ages  have  many  religious  problems.  These  prob- 
lems arise  because  new  individuals  are  born  to 
refresh  the  life  of  the  race.  These  individuals  must 
be  taught  the  faith  of  their  fathers,  but  there  will 
be  some  of  them  who  wish  to  make  changes.  The 
pressure  of  strong  men  is  the  great  force  in  society 
that  makes  for  social  changes.  It  has  been  agreed, 
on  the  whole,  that  these  social  changes  are  to  be 
called  progress.  There  is  decay  and  death,  no  doubt, 
in  the  social  order.  Peoples  and  civilizations  perish 
because  they  are  unfit  for  the  struggle  of  existence. 
But  the  whole  history  of  the  world  taken  together 
indicates  to  us  more  clearly  than  it  did  to  Hegel  the 
definite  if  not  steady  progress  in  human  institutions. 

Some  ages  are  characterized  by  great  religious 
unrest  and  others  by  great  intellectual  disturbance. 
Intellectual  disturbances  born  of  new  knowledge 
bring  always  a  time  of  debate.  The  children  of  the 
new  day  fling  out  their  challenges  to  the  various 
forms  of  the  social  inheritance.  In  these  times  the 
creeds  are  put  upon  the  rack,  but  not  the  creeds  of 
religion  any  more  than  the  creeds  of  science  or  of 


THE   RELIGIOUS    PROBLEM  3 

politics.  Readjustments  must  be  made.  In  making 
them  changes  occur,  and  the  period  which  brings 
the  most  disturbance  to  the  conservative  mind  is 
the  period  which,  at  last,  results  in  the  greatest 
advantage  to  the  world.  We  are  at  the  close  of  an 
era  of  the  greatest  intellectual  disturbance  that  the 
world  has  ever  known.  The  time  has  seen  vast 
changes  in  government,  and  the  creation  of  nearly 
all  the  modern  constitutions,  as  well  as  the  re-crea- 
tion of  every  form  of  scientific  knowledge.  Re- 
ligion could  not  escape,  and  the  storm  that  has 
broken  over  all  churches  in  all  lands  is  the  severest 
since  the  Reformation,  and  will  doubtless  be  re- 
garded in  time  to  come  as  one  of  the  most  tre- 
mendous in  all  human  history. 

The  men  of  tradition  while  accepting  as  much  of 
the  new  knowledge  as  they  can  use  in  their  fields  of 
work,  wish  to  either  reject  altogether  the  new  influ- 
ence upon  religious  faith,  or,  at  least,  to  reduce  it 
to  its  lowest  terms.  Scholars  quite  universally 
condemn  the  traditionalist.  He  has  gradually  been 
elbowed  out  of  all  the  universities  and  his  place  is 
vacant  among  the  seats  of  the  mighty.  The  schol- 
ars say  that  traditionalism  is  dead;  that  all  the  old 
views  of  inspiration  and  revelation  with  their 
accompanying  dogmas  can  no  longer  be  held  by 
the  sincere  mind.    Meantime  the  man  of  traditions 


4  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

seems  to  have  a  strange  hold  upon  the  multitude. 
The  scholars  say  that  it  is  because  the  multitude  is 
not  yet  sufficiently  instructed,  but  that  is  not  the 
reason.  It  is  rather  because  the  man  of  tradition 
is  frequently  very  sincere  and  very  strong  in  his 
own  religious  life.  In  spite  of  absurdities  of 
thought  and  ridiculous  mistakes  of  fact,  the  people 
are  moved  by  any  man  who  seems  intoxicated  with 
a  passion  for  their  good.  Such  a  man  does  not 
speak  like  the  scribes,  and  he  conquers  by  fresh 
enthusiasm  while  he  fails  in  fresh  knowledge.  The 
fundamental  reason  for  his  power  is  that  religion 
is  something  essential  to  human  nature. 

The  biblical  critic  has  had  his  word,  and  with  his 
weapons  he  has  driven  panic-stricken  hosts  under 
the  shelter  of  the  fortresses  of  antiquity.  He  has 
taken  the  Bible  and  dismembered  it  book  by  book 
and  piece  by  piece.  He  has  counted  and  lettered 
the  documents.  He  has  even  printed  the  different 
authorities  in  different  colors,  and  with  much  real 
ability  and  a  great  deal  of  sound  scholarship  he  has 
demanded  his  right  to  be  heard.  At  this  point  he 
cannot  be  gainsaid,  but  the  trouble  with  the  critic 
is  that  he  has  not  done  enough.  He  has  dethroned 
the  old  Bible  but  he  has  not  enthroned  any  new 
oracle.  His  successes  have  saddened  the  world.  If 
the  critic  has  put  to  flight  his  enemies,  he  has  also 


THE   RELIGIOUS    PROBLEM  5 

greatly  disappointed  his  friends.  He  has  brought 
neither  peace  nor  comfort.  Some  of  the  work  of 
the  critic  will  doubtless  remain,  but  the  permanent 
results  will  take  their  place  as  material  for  the 
upbuilding  of  a  new  temple  for  the  living  faith  of 
a  living  present. 

The  evolutionist  comes  into  the  field  of  religion 
as  he  comes  into  every  other  field  of  human  action 
to  give  a  universal  law  by  which  every  kind  of  his- 
tory is  explained.  Matter,  life,  man,  institutions, 
begin  simply  and  become  complex.  They  begin 
indefinite  in  form  and  become  definite  both  in 
organ  and  in  function.  So  far  as  this  principle  is 
applicable,  it  sheds  wonderful  light  on  the  history 
of  the  universe  in  general,  but  most  of  all  upon 
the  history  of  this  world  in  particular.  But  most 
evolutionists  lack  vision  and  have  very  little  imag- 
ination. They  do  not  see  the  limits  of  the  law 
which  has  been  discovered.  They  do  not  see  that 
though  the  law  of  evolution  in  some  form  or  other 
may  become  more  universal  than  even  that  of 
gravitation,  it  leaves  untouched  at  last  the  funda- 
mental problems  of  life  and  of  religion.  The 
ordinary  evolutionist  thinks  that  he  is  rid  of  God 
to-day  and  that  he  will  be  rid  of  religion  to-morrow. 
But  the  discovery  of  a  process,  however  wide- 
spread, is  no  inquiry  into  power  of  any  kind,  and 


6  RELIGION    IN    THE    MAKING 

a  law  may  be  universal  in  its  applicability  to  the 
visible  world  and  have  little  meaning  for  the 
psychical  experiences  of  the  race. 

The  ethnologist  is  one  of  our  most  interesting 
modern  acquisitions.  He  studies  and  compares  the 
customs,  laws,  habits,  and  manners  of  peoples,  kin- 
dreds and  tongues.  He  studies  the  apparatus  of 
religion  as  among  the  most  interesting  remains 
from  bygone  days.  He  finds  resemblances  among 
tribes  so  remote  from  each  other  that  no  historic 
contact  has  been  possible.  The  curious  thing  about 
the  ethnologist  is  that  if  he  finds  customs  in  some 
other  religion  that  bear  a  strong  resemblance  to 
something  in  the  Bible,  he  feels  quite  sure  that  he 
has  rendered  the  biblical  fact  of  no  special  im- 
portance. He  sees  the  tremendous  influence  of 
religion  as  a  human  experience  in  all  the  forms  of 
human  history,  but  he  thinks  that  while  from  the 
religious  instinct  and  tradition  have  come  agri- 
culture, the  practical  arts,  and  the  fine  arts,  since  he 
has  found  religion  to  be  a  universal  experience, 
one  religion  is  just  as  worthless  as  another,  and 
having  done  their  work  in  the  world,  they  will 
all  pass  away.  But  the  ethnologist  does  not  tell  us 
when  religion,  which  is  the  life  in  the  engine,  is 
dead,  by  what  new  power  or  authority  he  will  work 
new  miracles  of  history. 


THE   RELIGIOUS    PROBLEM  7 

Grateful  to  the  men  of  tradition,  to  the  critic, 
to  the  evolutionist,  and  to  the  ethnologist,  for  all 
they  have  done,  this  study  seeks  to  claim  some  gift 
from  each  of  them  in  order  to  make  a  study  of 
Hebrew  institutions  under  the  influence  of  the 
science  of  sociology. 

From  any  point  of  view  there  are  serious  diffi- 
culties in  the  scientific  study  of  human  kind.  It  is 
sometimes  even  asserted  that  there  are  no  human 
sciences,  and  there  are  not  in  the  sense  of  the  multi- 
plication table  and  the  binomial  theorem.  The 
studies  of  life  are  all  more  intricate  than  the  study 
of  matter.  The  higher  the  form  of  organization, 
the  more  complex  it  is,  and  the  wider  the  range  of 
its  activities.  Man  is  the  most  complex  form  of 
life.  His  motives  and  desires,  his  hopes  and  fears, 
his  loves  and  hates,  set  him  as  far  apart  from  every 
other  animal  as  though  he  belonged  to  another 
world.  Perhaps  he  does.  It  may  some  time  be 
admitted  that  there  is  a  transcendent  element  in 
man  which  defies  scientific  analysis.  But  though 
our  knowledge  of  him  may  be  incomplete,  he  will 
remain  the  most  interesting  creature  in  the  world. 

The  study  of  the  group,  or  men  in  the  mass,  gives 
us  more  definite  results.  We  learn  to  trace  the 
genesis  of  institutions  and  to  find  that  certainly  in 
r,ome  matters  this  human  being  so  elusive  is  yet 


8  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

put  under  law.  It  is  the  business  of  science  to 
observe  social  facts  and  forces  and  to  study  the 
sequence  of  events.  Early  studies  of  men  made 
perhaps  too  much  of  the  external  resemblances  be- 
tween the  institutions  of  different  peoples.  These 
resemblances  are  very  convenient  for  purposes  of 
classification.  They  enable  us  to  group  and  relate 
our  -facts,  but  they  must  not  be  too  much  depended 
upon  for  definite  results.  Many  houses,  for 
example,  look  much  alike,  but  the  homes  which 
they  shelter  within  are  leagues  apart  in  dignity  and 
beauty.  It  is  the  spirit  within  the  thing  which  gives 
it  value. 

Another  difficulty  which  must  be  frankly  ad- 
mitted is  that  much  of  the  material  in  the  Bible  is 
foreign  to  our  modern  life.  There  is  a  strangeness 
about  Palestine  itself  from  which  the  traveler  can- 
not escape.  He  is  at  home,  it  may  be,  in  Paris  and 
Berlin,  but  he  remains  a  stranger  in  Jerusalem  or 
Damascus.  It  is  not  easy  for  the  western  mind  to 
get  the  point  of  view  of  the  orient.  The  eastern 
mind  was  so  large,  so  vague,  it  covered  so  much 
emotion,  it  had  such  gift  of  imagination.  It 
brooded  and  dreamed  and  often  closed  its  eyes  and 
sat  still  for  long  periods  of  time.  Europeans  wish 
definiteness,  system,  order.  These  things  are  not 
found  in  the  Bible.     The  very  lack  of  system,  the 


THE   RELIGIOUS    PROBLEM  9 

indefiniteness  of  dates  which  were  normal  enough 
to  the  men  who  wrote  the  Bible,  made  their  work, 
particularly  under  scientific  scrutiny,  a  good  deal 
like  a  confusion  of  tongues. 

Mindful  at  least  of  some  of  the  difficulties  of  the 
task,  the  object  of  this  study  is  to  examine  the 
various  methods  by  which  the  Hebrews  expressed 
their  religious  life,  to  note  whether  there  were 
changes  and  developments  in  the  history  of  that  life, 
and  for  this  purpose  the  altar,  the  priest,  the  ritual, 
and  the  other  instruments  of  the  religion  of  the 
Bible  are  to  be  examined.  In  harmony  with  the 
best  modern  thinking  we  must  attempt  to  gather 
some  knowledge  of  the  psychical  forces  back  of 
these  visible  expressions,  and  out  of  the  record  to 
evoke  the  soul  of  this  religion — its  idea  of  God. 
The  problem  of  the  Old  Testament  from  the  point 
of  view  of  sociology  must  be  separated  from  the 
Christian  problem.  It  is  an  effort  to  conceive  the 
Old  Testament  history  as  it  really  was  before 
Christianity,  to  note  its  characteristics  and  to 
reckon  its  values. 

Since  environment  is  an  important  element  in 
the  development  of  a  nation,  we  must  take  a  glance 
at  the  land  and  the  people  in  order  to  find  setting 
for  the  work. 

The  method  will  be  to  accept  the  facts  stated  in 


lO  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

the  Bible  as  substantially  correct,  but  to  select 
them  under  a  system  that  will  seek  to  organize  the 
facts  and  relate  them  to  different  periods  of  his« 
torical  unfolding.  It  may  be  frankly  admitted  that 
many  problems  will  be  left  untouched,  but  the  task, 
if  successful,  should  prove  an  introduction  to  a 
valuable  way  of  looking  at  the  Bible.  No  intelli- 
gent person  should  shrink  from  the  scrutiny  of  the 
religious  beginnings  any  more  than  from  the  early 
conditions  of  any  other  form  of  social  life.  As  the 
study  of  biology  gathers  beauty  in  the  eyes  of  its 
votary  as  he  sees  in  lower  forms  of  life  a  prophecy 
of  beings  much  higher  in  the  scale,  so  all  human 
origins  are  of  interest  to  the  patient  student  of  the 
conditions  surrounding  early  men.  The  genetic 
idea  of  history  furnishes  a  new  set  of  values.  The 
etching  of  a  mammoth  made  by  a  pre-historic  hand 
in  a  bone  cave  is  vastly  more  important  to  the  his- 
tory of  civilization  than  any  Madonna  painted  by 
the  hand  of  Raphael. 

We  need  a  new  notion  of  validity.  The  discov- 
ery of  progress  in  the  Bible  does  not  make  it  less 
a  divine  book  than  it  was  before.  Nay,  the  history 
of  the  progress  may  be  so  conceived  as  to  render 
the  story  more  divine.  The  value  of  human  inter- 
pretation must  always  depend  upon  the  correctness 
of  a  man's  knowledge  of  his  facts  and  the  wisdom 


THE   RELIGIOUS    PROBLEM  n 

with  which  he  combines  them.  The  honest  inter- 
pretation of  fact  by  the  social  man,  that  is  to  say 
by  the  common  mind  of  any  social  group,  is  doubt- 
less better  for  that  group  than  a  wiser  interpreta- 
tion would  be.  It  is  what  this  social  man  can 
understand  and  it  is  what  he  needs  to  know.  This 
view  covers  the  whole  range  of  human  affairs. 

Nature  has  been  variously  interpreted  both  by 
individuals  and  by  peoples.  And  all  these  different 
readings  ultimately  flow  into  that  thing  which  we 
call  science.  But  they  are  written  down  one  above 
the  other  until  human  experience  of  nature  is  a 
great  palimpsest  in  which  the  former  theories  are 
studied  only  that  their  places  may  be  usurped. 

Equally  the  interpretation  of  what  is  the  proper 
method  of  conducting  human  life  has  given  rise  to 
standards  of  conduct.  Man  has  not  changed  phys- 
ically since  the  earliest  ages.  His  world  is  here. 
He  has  had  his  various  personal  and  social  ques- 
tions to  ask  and  to  answer,  and  the  interpretations 
vary  from  that  of  the  brute  man  to  the  highest 
moral  creed  of  the  purest  sage.  Let  no  one  despise 
the  work  of  the  brute  man.  Nothing  ever  written 
by  saint  or  philosopher  is  so  wonderful  as  these 
dim  awakenings  of  the  child  conscience  through 
which   the   race   learned  by   painful  effort   to   set 


12  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

bounds  to  passion  and  to  live  under  law  that  men 
might  develop  as  social  beings. 

The  various  interpretations  of  religion  grow  out 
of  variations  in  human  life  and  experience.  The 
beginnings  of  religion  are  as  crude  as  the  begin- 
nings of  government.  The  state  began  in  the  per- 
son of  some  one  man  who  took  the  lead  of  his  clan 
in  time  of  battle  or  distress  because  he  was  stronger 
and  wiser  than  the  rest.  The  state  died  when  the 
crisis  passed  and  with  each  new  need  it  was 
revived  again  by  some  new  leader.  So  read  also 
the  stories  of  the  Judges  of  Israel.  This  flickering 
of  authority  and  insecurity  of  power  make  us 
marvel  not  the  less  but  the  more  at  the  splendid 
dignity  and  usefulness  of  the  modern  state.  Its 
constitution  and  laws,  its  officers  and  its  authority, 
are  not  weakened  by  the  humbleness  of  the  origin 
of  political  institutions. 

The  institutions  of  religion  began  when  men  in 
a  common  service  sought  to  express  a  common  need 
and  to  seek  a  common  good.  These  began  to  be 
visible  and  organized  when  men  made  some  spot 
where  they  had  worshiped  before,  a  permanent 
trysting  place  for  new  appeals  to  the  unseen  powers. 
Religion  in  modern  times  is  of  no  less  value,  and 
has  no  less  truth  and  beauty  because  in  the  minds 


THE   RELIGIOUS    PROBLEM  13 

of  those  far-off  worshipers  there  were  behefs  and 
feeUngs  which  we  now  regard  as  superstitious. 

While  we  study  the  history  of  the  Hebrews  we 
are  also  slowly  learning  that  God  has  never  left 
Himself  without  a  witness,  but  that  through  all 
men  and  by  all  faiths,  He  has  been  coming  more 
and  more  into  communion  with  the  race.  Any  real 
faith  in  a  real  God  must  teach  that  all  men  are 
cared  for  by  Him,  all  men  share  His  life,  and  all 
men  according  to  the  measure  of  their  need  and 
their  capacity  receive  His  revelations. 

With  respect  to  these  problems  one  of  the  most 
illuminating  questions  to  ask  is  "Was  man  active 
or  passive  in  the  making  of  religion?"  This  ques- 
tion is  perhaps  the  most  divisive  that  can  be  asked. 
It  seems  to  separate  men  into  naturalists  and  super- 
naturalists.  The  believer  in  the  supernatural  is 
wont  to  say  that  all  the  knowledge  and  worship  in 
religion  come  as  a  direct  gift  from  an  active  God 
to  a  passive  man.  The  naturalist,  on  the  other 
hand,  would  have  us  believe  that  the  making  of 
religion  was  done  by  an  active  man  working  largely 
upon  material  in  his  own  heart  and  brain,  and  that 
God  was  either  absent  or  passive  in  the  perform- 
ance. It  does  not  seem  necessary  to  have  these  two 
camps  divide  religious  men  in  modern  times.  The 
revelation  of  the  thought  and  life  of  God  could 


14  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

never  rise  above  the  knowledge  and  capacity  of  the 
man  to  whom  it  was  revealed.  This  man,  yearning 
with  longing  and  hopes  too  great  for  speech,  was 
sure  to  make  many  and  many  a  mistake.  He 
would  often  misunderstand  even  the  voice  of  God 
Himself.  'Thus  saith  the  Lord"  cannot  always  oe 
trusted.  Nevertheless  through  the  travail  of  the 
generations  men  were  active  in  cooperation  with 
all  their  environment,  physical  and  psychical,  seek- 
ing to  understand  and  to  interpret.  His  reverence 
made  man  great. 


CHAPTER  II 
SCIENCE  OF  SOCIOLOGY 

The  modern  science  of  sociology  has  furnished 
a  method  of  interpretation  for  nearly  every  field 
of  scientific  inquiry.  If  it  has  not  yet  furnished 
itself  with  principles  and  methods  of  great  defi- 
niteness,  it  has  done  more.  It  has  furnished  a  point 
of  view  for  the  study  of  human  activity  of  peculiar 
significance.  History,  economics,  politics,  and  all 
human  sciences  have  been  brought  into  relation 
with  each  other  to  such  an  extent  that  the  bound- 
aries of  each  have  become  uncertain  and  a  nobler 
unity  of  knowledge  seems  emergent. 

For  the  purposes  of  this  study  it  is  necessary  to 
define  sociology  in  order  to  indicate  the  nature  and 
scope  of  the  science.  This  is  the  more  necessary 
because  the  word  has  been  used  as  the  title  of  all 
kinds  of  theories  and  as  the  object  of  numerous 
reform  programs.  But  it  is  a  science  and  so  deals 
with  facts  and  their  interpretation.  It  demands 
the  inductive  method.  As  the  science  of  society  it 
finds  its  social  facts  related  to  space  and  gives  rise 
to  social  geography.     It  finds  them  in  relation  to 

IS 


l6  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

time  and  hence  there  is  a  history  of  society.  But 
it  is  not  the  isolated  fact  that  is  the  object  of  inter- 
est. It  is  the  social  fact  as  one  of  a  series.  Acts 
tend  to  group  themselves.  Given  a  certain  degree 
of  development  in  the  state,  and  correspondences  are 
found  in  the  form  of  the  family  and  in  the  quality 
of  religious  institutions.  Societies  are  not  made, 
they  grow.  Society  exhibits  certain  organs  or 
institutions  through  which  it  does  its  work  and 
expresses  its  life.  Similarity  of  social  organs  does 
not  mean  that  the  two  groups  in  comparison  neces- 
sarily have  a  common  origin  or  that  one  group  has 
borrowed  from  the  other.  These  social  resem- 
blances mark  a  much  profounder  law,  namely,  that 
societies  at  similar  stages  of  development,  under 
similar  conditions,  manifest  similar  characteristics. 
The  form  of  the  family,  that  is,  whether  the  home 
shelters  one  wife  or  several,  is  not  based  upon  what 
we  moderns  call  moral  grounds  so  much  as  it  is 
upon  the  supply  of  food  products  and  the  economic 
and  political  organization  of  the  group.  Nor  does 
this  statement  mean  that  ethical  motives  are  not 
universal  and  profoundly  significant. 

Sociology  may  be  defined  as  a  study  of  the 
agents,  processes,  results,  and  tendencies  of  social 
development.  The  active  agents  are  human  beings, 
and  a  study  of  them  as  related  to  the  history  of  any 


SCIENCE  OF   SOCIOLOGY  17 

form  of  society  is  much  more  than  the  taking  of  a 
census  to  find  their  numbers  or  the  studying  of 
their  race  in  order  to  ascertain  their  quality,  though 
these  facts  are  each  important.  A  social  group 
must  be  distinguished  from  the  forms  of  social 
institutions  through  which  it  works.  It  is  a  body 
of  people,  large  or  small,  with  common  social  inter- 
ests, who  live  and  work  together. 

The  size  of  the  group  will  depend  upon  the  fer- 
tility of  the  soil,  the  extent  of  the  territory,  but  most 
of  all  upon  the  degree  of  culture.  Abundance  of 
food  is  necessary  to  any  civilization.  Surplus  food 
makes  the  artisan,  the  merchant,  and  the  artist 
possible,  but  cultural  development  is  necessary  to 
provide  social  organs  at  once  sufficiently  complex 
and  sufficiently  elastic  to  meet  the  needs  of  rich  and 
varied  forms  of  living.  It  is  agreed  by  students  of 
the  question  that  low-grade  people  can  only  live  in 
small  groups,  no  matter  what  their  other  advantages. 
The  organization  of  the  group  must  increase  in 
definiteness  as  it  increases  in  size.  The  clan  may 
have  a  small  organization,  but  the  tribe  is  more 
than  a  group  of  clans.  Each  clan  in  the  tribe  may 
maintain  its  own  special  organization,  but  all  the 
clans  in  the  tribe  must  unite  in  a  common  life  and 
organization,  or  there  is  no  tribe.  A  tribe  may  get 
along  with  a  ritual  of  life  ordered  by  inherited  cus- 


l8  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

torn,  but  when  the  tribe  becomes  a  nation,  custom 
becomes  law  and  the  exercise  of  power  is  regulated 
to  such  degree  that  in  effect  every  nation  possesses 
a  constitution  whether  it  be  a  written  document  or 
not. 

The  agents  of  social  evolution  must  be  studied  as 
a  social  group,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
group  is  fashioned  by  the  place  where  it  lives,  for 
that  furnishes  soil,  natural  resources,  climate  and 
occupation. 

But  it  would  be  a  very  meager  account  of  a 
social  group  to  furnish  a  full  statement  of  its 
physical  surroundings  and  to  give  a  complete 
analysis  of  its  social  organization.  The  strength  of 
a  group  consists  in  the  number  of  interests  which 
it  holds  in  common.  When  it  has  one  history,  one 
custom,  one  religion,  one  land,  and  when  it  has 
also  a  practical  equality  of  economic  conditions,  the 
group  is  strong  in  a  social  sense,  though  it  may 
have  neither  army  for  defense  nor  large  natural 
resources  for  its  activities.  But  not  alone  must 
these  things  be  considered.  There  is  a  further 
matter  more  difficult  of  definition  as  It  Is  harder  to 
put  in  scientific  form.  And  that  is  the  study  of  the 
soul  of  the  social  group.  The  common  faiths, 
aspirations,  ideas,  and  hopes  of  a  people  are  its 
essential  life.     These  may  manifest  themselves  in 


SCIENCE   OF   SOCIOLOGY  19 

action,  in  literature,  or  in  both.  Very  similar  physi- 
cal surroundings  may  be  occupied  by  very  unlike 
social  groups,  nay,  the  same  country  with  its  rivers, 
mountains,  and  plains,  may  be  occupied  by  succes- 
sive groups  vastly  different  both  in  structure  and 
in  action. 

The  social  group  reacts  upon  the  individuals 
which  compose  it  and  tends  to  give  to  each  indi- 
vidual not  only  practical  methods  for  living,  as 
toiler,  student,  and  worshiper,  but  also  to  pour 
into  him  as  far  as  he  is  able  to  receive  it,  the  whole 
psychical  content  of  its  inherited  life.  In  some 
groups  there  are  found  individuals  impatient  of  the 
past  and  with  sufficient  strength  to  resist,  or  even 
to  lead,  the  entire  body  of  people.  Among  some 
peoples  these  supermen  are  very  infrequent.  In 
the  lower  groups  they  are  entirely  absent.  But  the 
group  which  is  richest  in  available  leadership  rises 
in  the  scale  of  organized  life  and  becomes  increas- 
ingly important.  Great  races  have  produced  great 
individuals  who  have  been  the  makers  of  social 
variation, — that  is,  of  progress.  The  great  men 
were  not  all  of  one  sort.  Some  fought  battles  and 
some  made  laws.  Some  were  skilful  in  practical 
affairs  and  some  touched  harps  to  new  music. 

The  influence  of  group  upon  group  became  more 
important  as  the  world  began  to  be  filled.    It  was 


20  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

not  always  easy  for  wise  Abraham  to  send  Lot  and 
his  cattle  in  some  other  direction  because  the  whole 
land  lay  before  him.  As  men  passed  from  the 
nomad  state  as  hunters  or  shepherds,  built  for 
themselves  houses,  cultivated  the  soil,  took  up  defi- 
nite occupations,  and  saturated  the  whole  of  life 
with  local  color,  the  action  and  reaction  of  the 
types  of  social  life  became  increasingly  impressive. 
When  alien  races  and  diverse  faiths  confronted 
each  other,  it  might  not  always  be  the  cause  of 
war,  but  it  was  always  the  occasion  of  psychical 
conflict.  Israel  by  the  Nile  or  near  the  Euphrates 
must  reckon  with  Egyptian  or  with  Persian.  It 
must  be  noted  that  the  deeper  the  contrast  between 
the  forms  of  life,  the  more  significant  the  impact. 
Turk  and  Armenian  are  each  different  and  each 
worse  because  the  fortunes  of  history  have  brought 
them  into  relationship,  but  Germany  and  England 
are  each  greater  because  of  the  other. 

So  much  has  been  said  of  the  agents  of  social 
development,  it  will  not  be  needful  to  linger  at 
length  upon  the  other  parts  of  the  definition  of 
sociology. 

A  study  of  the  processes  of  social  development 
marks  the  action  and  reaction  of  the  group  upon 
its  physical  surroundings,  its  increase  in  size,  the 
changes  in  form  and  content  of  its  physical  inherit- 


SCIENCE   OF   SOCIOLOGY  21 

ance,  the  influences  of  war  and  peace,  the  growth 
of  leaders  and  of  leadership,  and,  in  brief,  the  whole 
physiology  of  the  social  life. 

The  results  of  social  development  are  realized  in 
institutions.  In  the  earlier  forms  of  history  they 
are  often  only  rudimentary.  Even  the  three  pri- 
mary institutions,  the  family,  the  church,  and  the 
state,  are  often  confused  one  with  the  other.  The 
larger  the  group  and  the  wider  the  range  of  its 
activities,  the  greater  the  number  of  its  institutions 
and  the  more  definite  are  the  tasks  assigned  to  each 
of  them.  Nor  must  an  institution  be  regarded  as 
anything  else  than  a  living  thing.  It  has  its  growth, 
undergoes  its  changes,  and  does  its  work.  The 
larger  the  group  and  the  richer  its  life,  the  greater 
is  the  number  of  its  institutions  and  the  more  per- 
fectly are  they  related  one  to  the  other.  The  great- 
est fact  in  human  history  is  the  final  evolution  of 
the  state  as  the  dominant  form  of  social  organiza- 
tion. But  the  supremacy  of  the  state  is  so  modern 
that  it  may  almost  be  called  a  startling  innovation. 

Having  studied  the  agents  of  social  development, 
marked  its  processes,  and  reckoned  with  its  results, 
there  remains  only  the  examination  of  its  tenden- 
cies. These  of  course  will  be  diflferent  at  different 
times  in  the  life  of  the  social  group  and  each  group 
will  differ  from  every  other.     In  a  study  of  the 


22  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

tendencies  of  social  evolution,  the  historian  becomes 
prophet,  and  he  may  be  even  a  scientific  prophet, 
surely  a  new  thing  among  men,  if  he  can  compare 
the  social  group  of  which  he  speaks  with  other 
social  groups,  an  older  past,  and  a  more  venerable 
development.  But  the  chief  value  of  the  study  of 
the  tendencies  of  social  development  is  not  to  lead 
men  to  submit  blindly  to  what  has  always  happened. 
It  is  rather  to  stir  their  creative  faculty  and  to 
quicken  in  them  a  sense  of  obligation  to  repeat  the 
victories  and  to  avoid  the  mistakes  of  those  who 
have  gone  before.  Sociology  is  more  than  an  instru- 
ment for  the  interpretation  of  history.  It  aspires 
to  be  counselor  and  guide  to  the  leaders  of  men. 

The  outstanding  fact  in  human  history  is  the 
march  of  the  race  toward  opportunity  and  freedom. 
The  early  man  was  largely  influenced  by  climate 
and  soil.  The  cultivated  man  builds  for  himself, 
not  alone  houses  for  shelter,  but  all  manner  of  con- 
ventions against  the  brute  tyrannies  of  matter  and  of 
force.  He  not  only  has  a  wider  fauna  than  any  other 
animal,  but  he  has  also  enriched  his  diet  from  every 
corner  of  the  globe.  So  he  seeks  to  make  every  op- 
portunity and  every  possession  available  in  every 
place.  Neither  men  nor  nations  have  yet  realized 
upon  the  great  gift  of  freedom.  But  the  triumphant 
psychical  man  will  one  day  be  king  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  SOCIAL  VALUE  OF  RELIGION 

What  Schopenhauer  calls  the  "will  to  live"  has 
certain  definite  methods  of  fulfilment.  The  pri- 
mary activity  of  every  living  being  is  to  satisfy 
hunger  for  food.  In  order  that  life  may  be  per- 
petuated, it  has  been  necessary  that  the  next 
satisfaction  is  sex  hunger.  These  two  desires  pro- 
vide for  the  continuance  of  the  individual  and  the 
perpetuation  of  the  species.  But  they  are  both 
animal  desires  and  are  shared  by  men  with  all  the 
lower  forms  of  life.  These  two  hungers  are 
primary,  universal,  necessary. 

Speech  is  sometimes  regarded  as  the  distinctive 
human  achievement,  but  if  by  speech  is  meant 
means  of  communication,  it  is  evident  that  lower 
animals  are  able,  at  least  to  some  degree,  to  convey 
to  each  other  thought  and  emotion.  Distinct  sounds 
are  used  throughout  the  animal  world  to  convey 
emotions  of  joy  or  fear,  love  or  hate. 

Nor  is  man  the  only  social  being.  Very  highly 
organized  and  complex  social  life  is  found  among 
animals  so  low  in  the  scale  as  bees  and  ants,  and, 
23 


24  RELIGION  IN   THE  MAKING 

in  a  less  marked  degree,  the  higher  animals  group 
themselves  together  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time  in 
ways  that  indicate  the  purpose. 

But  man  is  the  only  animal  that  has  a  religion. 
To  him  it  has  always  been  necessary  to  interpret 
the  forces  round  about  him  in  terms  of  the  super- 
natural. It  is  generally  agreed  that  some  form 
of  religion  is  found  among  all  tribes  of  men.  His 
religion  marks  him  a  man,  and  the  nature  of  his 
religion  gives  an  account  of  the  kind  of  man  he 
has  become.  Religion  recognizes  a  common  bond 
between  the  worshiper  and  the  object  of  his 
worship,  but  it  also  recognizes  his  companions  as 
fellow  worshipers  with  like  needs  and  relationships. 
Society  has  always  been  held  together  by  the  com- 
mon interests  in  which  its  members  have  shared. 
The  strength  of  the  interests  describes  the  strength 
of  the  society.  After  the  most  elementary  wants 
are  satisfied,  every  social  group  is  chiefly  marked 
by  the  object  which  it  worships  and  the  way  in 
which  it  offers  its  devotions. 

The  unity  of  the  human  race  is  disclosed  in  the 
oneness  of  its  interests.  All  human  beings  that  live 
together  must  have  some  kind  of  a  government  and 
so  the  political  interest  is  universal,  though  it  mani- 
fests itself  all  the  way  from  the  occasional  chief 
chosen  for  a  special  purpose  at  a  special  time,  to 


SOCIAL   VALUE  OF   RELIGION 


25 


the  most  complex  and  orderly  constitutional  gov- 
ernment. Human  interest  in  beauty  is  well  nigh 
universal,  and  the  satisfaction  of  this  desire  must 
be  recognized  as  a  common  human  need,  though 
its  expression  varies  from  the  most  primitive  muti- 
lations of  the  body  to  the  highest  forms  of  sculpture 
or  painting. 

In  like  manner  the  religious  interest  is  universal 
and  it  is  fundamentally  human  though  it  varies  from 
the  lowest  form  of  idol  worship  to  the  loftiest  con- 
ception of  a  Supreme  Soul  giving  thought  and  life 
to  all  His  works  while  He  transcends  them  in  the 
unexplored  deeps  of  His  own  being.  One  man 
may  hunt  food  alone ;  two  human  beings  may  found 
a  family ;  but  religion  requires  the  cooperation  of 
the  entire  social  group  whether  it  be  small  or  large. 

There  have  been  many  definitions  of  religion,  but 
each  man  who  has  defined  it  seems  to  have  his  own 
form  of  faith  or  of  unfaith  which  he  wishes  to 
describe.  Matthew  Arnold  tells  us  that  religion  is 
"morality  touched  by  emotion,"  but  if  there  be  any- 
thing sure  in  the  study  of  religious  phenomena  it 
is  the  conclusion  that  morality  is  not,  primarily,  a 
part  of  religion  at  all  but  a  later  growth  from  the 
same  roots.  So  when  Kant  declares  that  "religion 
consists  in  our  recognizing  all  our  duties  as  divine 
commands,"  he  is  speaking  of  a  man  who  knows 


26  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

himself  as  part  of  a  moral  order  in  relation  to  a 
God  who  is  a  righteous  ruler.  In  other  words,  he 
is  speaking  of  Emmanuel  Kant.  Herbert  Spencer 
somewhere  described  religion  as  an  "a  priori  theory 
of  the  universe,"  yet  no  one  knew  better  than 
Herbert  Spencer  that  primitive  and  undeveloped 
man  has  no  universe,  no  abstract  terms,  and  no 
abstract  thoughts.  A  man  without  a  world  and 
without  a  theory  could  hardly  hold  religion  on  the 
terms  suggested  by  Mr.  Spencer,  who  was  doubtless 
thinking  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Mr. 
Huxley  says  that  "reverence  and  love  for  the 
ethical  ideal  and  a  desire  to  realize  that  ideal  in 
life"  is  the  true  formula  for  religion,  but  Mr. 
Huxley  had  inherited  an  ethical  ideal  which  he  still 
loyally  held  though  he  had  cut  it  away  from  the 
faith  out  of  whose  roots  his  ideal  had  grown. 
Edward  Caird  is  a  man  entitled  to  respect  for  many 
reasons,  but  when  he  says  "a  man's  religion  is  the 
expression  of  his  ultimate  attitude  to  the  universe: 
the  summed-up  meaning  of  his  whole  consciousness 
of  things,"  it  seems  plain  that  if  he  is  not  talking 
of  Edward  Caird,  he  is  talking  about  either  Plato 
or  Hegel.  Max  Mueller  has  perhaps  come  as  close 
to  a  definition  that  would  include  every  form  of 
religion  as  any  other  writer  when  he  ?a3^s  "religion 
is  the  sense  of  our  dependence  upon  something  or 


SOCIAL   VALUE   OF   RELIGION  27 

some  one  else.  All  nations  join  in  some  way  or 
other  in  the  words  of  the  Psalmist  'He  hath  made 
us  and  not  we  ourselves.'  "  But  religion  is  some- 
thing more  than  a  sense  of  dependence,  though  that 
is  certainly  the  first  half  of  it.  In  addition  to  a 
sense  of  dependence  or  of  common  fortunes  with  a 
supernatural  power  or  powers,  religion  involves 
also  the  idea  of  duties  growing  out  of  that  relation, 
so  that  faith  in  the  supernatural  and  the  corre- 
sponding worship  or  service  make  up  the  primary 
basis  of  every  religion.  The  duties  belonging  to 
religion  are  first  of  all  service  rendered  to  the 
Supreme  Power  itself,  but  afterwards  the  idea  of 
duty  expands  to  include  one's  duty  to  himself  and 
to  his  fellow  man. 

All  religions  seem  to  have  some  common  ele- 
ments. They  begin  with  some  idea  of  God.  They 
proceed  to  some  responsibility  of  conduct  from 
which  good  or  ill  surely  follow.  They  end  with 
the  hope  that  life  will  outlast  death.  In  some  form 
or  other  God,  Retribution,  and  Immortality  are 
fundamental  to  every  religion. 

The  practical  workings  of  religion  are  distin- 
guished, however,  chiefly  by  the  conception  of  sin 
as  a  form  of  alienation  and  of  worship  as  a  method 
of  reconciliation.  The  nature  of  sin  Is  one  of  the 
essential    marks    of    difference    between    reUglons. 


28  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

The  Hebrew  sense  of  sin,  founded  upon  the  thought 
of  a  fire-smitten  mountain  that  quaked  under  the 
burning  feet  of  an  awful  Jehovah  uttering  his  law 
in  tones  of  thunder,  is  instinct  with  the  beginnings 
of  righteousness.  On  the  other  hand,  a  Greek 
Olympus,  where  the  jocund  gods  enjoy  a  happy  suc- 
cession of  banquets  with  a  divine  digestion  that  can 
never  be  impaired,  presents  a  picture  of  celestial 
powers  engaged  in  breaking  all  the  commandments 
that  Jehovah  has  ever  given.  The  Greek  concep- 
tion of  sin,  therefore,  has  little  to  do  with  what  we 
moderns  call  morality. 

It  will  be  seen  at  last  that  every  religion  has  its 
essence  in  the  idea  which  it  holds  of  God.  The 
idol  or  the  totem  are  curious  efforts  to  make  visible 
to  human  senses  the  god  which  early  men  began  to 
worship.  Ancestor  worship,  nature  worship,  and 
hero  worship  grew  out  of  a  dominant  idea  which 
interprets  for  the  worshiper  most  perfectly  his 
conception  of  the  supernatural.  The  various  forms 
of  monotheism  have  been  possible  because  the  one 
God  which  each  of  them  has  recognized  possessed 
qualities  which  were  unknown  to  the  god  of  the 
other  religion.  Religion  is  an  effort  at  the  interpre- 
tation of  power  and  of  life.  Manifestly,  the  kind 
of  power  the  object  of  worship  possesses  and  the 
way  in  which  he  uses  the  power  will  determine  the 


SOCIAL   VALUE   OF   RELIGION  29 

attitude  of  the  worshiper  and  the  sort  of  duties  he 
thinks  must  be  practised. 

Every  people  that  has  a  history  has  also  a  history 
of  its  religion.  Every  religion  passes  through  cer- 
tain stages  of  development.  The  conquerors  im- 
pose their  gods  upon  the  conquered,  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  they  enlarge  their  pantheon  to  take  in 
the  gods  of  the  land  of  which  they  have  taken 
possession.  It  is  only  a  strong  people  that  can  have 
a  god  like  Zeus,  and  it  is  only  a  cultivated  people 
that  can  worship  at  the  altar  of  Apollo. 

It  will  be  seen  how  fundamental  is  the  social 
interest  in  the  problems  of  religion.  In  all  the 
forms  of  social  life  religion  is  one  of  the  great  unit- 
ing forces,  and  in  some  forms  of  social  life  it  is  the 
controlling  social  bond.  A  scientific  interest  in 
religion  does  not  depend  upon  questions  about  its 
truth  or  its  falseness.  For  science  it  is  enough  that 
religion  exists,  therefore  it  must  be  studied,  but 
when  it  is  seen  to  be  not  only  an  important  social 
fact,  but  also  the  greatest  social  fact,  the  study  of 
society  is  incomplete  and  unscientific  unless  it  can 
give  an  account  of  the  religion  of  the  social  group 
which  is  studied. 

The  relation  of  the  religious  order  to  the  political 
order  is  one  of  the  great  facts  of  history.  Church 
and  state  may  be  identical ;  the  church  may  be  con- 


30  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

trolled  by  the  state;  the  state  may  be  controlled  by 
the  church;  or  each  form  of  organization  may  be 
free  from  the  other.  To  put  it  another  way:  The 
king  and  the  priest  may  be  the  same  man ;  the  king 
may  make  the  priest ;  the  priest  may  make  the  king ; 
or  the  two  may  be  rivals  for  social  leadership. 

In  the  development  of  religion  there  are  ideas  and 
there  are  institutions,  though  both  may  be  rudi- 
mentary. A  person  called  the  prophet  represents 
the  ideas  while  the  priest  represents  the  institutions. 
The  prophet  belongs  to  the  present  and  the  future; 
the  priest  belongs  essentially  to  the  past.  The 
prophet  speaks  in  the  name  of  living  inspiration; 
the  priest  is  set  to  guard  a  holy  tradition.  Prophet 
and  priest  are  often  represented  in  the  Hebrew 
scriptures  as  not  being  on  very  friendly  terms,  but 
the  same  is  true  elsewhere.  Socrates  was  put  to 
death  at  the  instigation  of  the  priests  of  Athens 
because  of  his  impiety  toward  the  gods  and  his  bad 
influence  upon  the  youth,  though  Socrates  was 
probably  the  most  religious  man  in  Greece. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  social  science  we  study 
the  effects  of  its  religion  upon  the  life  of  a  people. 
Religion,  like  every  other  human  activity,  has  its 
expense  account.  As  a  government  has  its  officers 
and  its  army  which  are  vindicated  when  there  is 
peace  and  order,  so  religion  has  its  natural  expenses. 


SOCIAL   VALUE   OF   RELIGION  31 

It  costs  for  the  building  of  temples,  maintenance  of 
priests,  the  offering  of  sacrifices,  and  the  various 
demands  upon  the  time  and  strength  of  its  wor- 
shipers. But  the  religions  of  the  world  have  a 
very  large  credit  account.  They  have  not  only 
furnished  architecture  and  all  the  other  arts  which 
the  temple  shelters,  so  that  beauty  has  in  every,  time 
been  the  servant  of  religion,  but  the  religion  of  a 
people  has  done  much  more.  It  has  furnished  those 
ideas  and  motives  which  have  created  the  largest 
life  and  the  noblest  activities.  If  the  idea  of  God 
is  the  most  creative  in  the  realm  of  philosophy,  the 
ideas  which  grew  out  of  it  are  the  most  sustaining 
in  the  realm  of  human  action.  More  than  the  dis- 
covery of  the  use  of  iron  or  of  steel  or  of  electricity, 
is  the  tremendous  dynamic  of  the  ideas  of  Provi- 
dence and  Immortality.  Because  of  them  men  have 
been  strong  to  do  and  to  suffer.  By  their  aid  man 
ceased  to  be  the  abject  coward  he  was  when  history 
began  and  becomes  a  hero  armed  to  fight  against 
fate. 

The  facts  of  religion  belong  to  the  interpretation 
of  human  experience  in  psychical  terms.  The  be- 
liefs, the  sanctions  and  the  duties  of  religion  are 
very  important  parts  of  the  equipment  of  the  social 
mind.  As  the  social  mind  of  any  people  becomes 
richer,  its  possible  life  becomes  larger  and  more 


32  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

varied.     No  really  great  people  is  possible  without 
the  leadership  of  men  of  religious  genius. 

As  every  people  finds  its  best  interpretation  in 
religion,  and  the  religion  of  every  people  is  an  inter- 
pretation of  its  idea  of  God,  so  the  way  in  which 
the  idea  of  God  is  held  is  the  most  important  fact 
for  any  people  or  any  time.  It  is  important,  there- 
fore, to  study  the  development  of  the  idea  of  God 
among  the  Hebrews,  since  religion  was  to  them  the 
most  important  human  interest  and  since  their  con- 
tribution to  the  religious  life  is  decidedly  the  most 
important  fact  in  the  religious  life  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER  IV 

SCIENTIFIC  VIEWS  OF  THE  BIBLE 

There  are  various  methods  of  using  the  Hebrew 
scriptures.  For  Christian  people  the  most  reverent 
and  the  most  profitable  is  to  read  them  with  devo- 
tion and  affection.  Every  devout  person  makes  an 
abridgment  of  the  Bible.  At  last  the  divine  hand 
has  written  those  passages  which  illuminate  his 
experience,  throw  light  as  he  conceives  upon  the 
dealings  of  God  with  men,  but,  especially,  those 
words  are  divine  which  find  his  soul,  soothe  his 
fears,  awaken  his  hopes,  and  help  him  to  leave  the 
world  of  cold  and  coarse  facts  to  find  a  transcend- 
ent and  a  universal  experience.  He  may  defend  all 
the  Psalms,  but  he  does  not  often  read  them  all  and 
some  of  them  he  does  not  love.  But  there  are 
lyrics,  full  of  compassion  and  gracious,  which  have 
permanent  power  to  stir  his  soul.  When  he  has  a 
sense  of  sin,  nowhere  else  can  he  find  such  interpre- 
tation of  repentance  as  in  the  Bible.  When  he  has 
a  sense  of  need,  nowhere  else  is  there  such  a  prom- 
ise of  divine  help.  He  reads  there  the  story  of  the 
sorrows,  the  defeats,  the  sins,  the  restorations,  and 
3  33 


34  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

the  victories  of  the  whole  roll-call  of  human  saints, 
and  he  feels  that  he  may  dare  to  share  the  promises 
which  were  effective  in  the  ancient  days. 

Quite  different  is  the  study  of  the  Bible  from  the 
literary  point  of  view.  With  authority  masters  of 
words  classify  the  contents,  divide  them  into  various 
departments  of  prose  and  poetry,  study  the  form  in 
which  the  material  Is  cast,  and  make  visible  the 
content  of  worth  and  of  beauty.  John  Bright  was 
nourished  largely  upon  the  Bible  and  became  the 
most  forceful  Saxon  orator  of  his  day.  John 
Ruskin,  of  an  almost  opposite  type  of  gift  and 
character,  tells  the  world  that  it  was  through  the 
study  of  the  Bible  In  his  youth  that  he  acquired  "the 
faculty  of  taking  pains,"  and  was  saved  from  the 
Imitation  of  base  or  common  forms  of  speech. 
Almost  every  great  writer  of  English  is  under 
special,  as  well  as  general,  obligation  to  the  literary 
form  of  the  Old  Testament. 

The  historical  study  of  the  Bible  may  deal  with 
political  facts  of  the  Hebrew  people  in  relation  with 
other  nations,  and  lead  to  a  study  of  archaeology 
or  other  survivals  of  pre-Christian  history.  Or  It 
may  be  a  study  of  the  religious  life  of  the  Old 
Testament  In  comparison  with  the  other  great  forms 
of  faith,  and  so  furnish  the  basis  for  the  science  of 
comparative  religion. 


SCIENTIFIC   VIEWS    OF   THE    BIBLE         35 

Once  again,  the  Bible  may  be  studied  with  a 
critical  apparatus  and  method,  inspecting  manu- 
scripts and  texts  in  order  to  decide  upon  correct 
readings.  This  criticism  studies  and  compares  the 
various  versions,  suggests  emendations  and  makes 
restorations,  although,  for  obvious  reasons,  this 
task  is  quite  different  between  the  two  Testaments. 
The  higher  criticism  studies  the  authorship,  the  date, 
the  content,  and  the  integrity  of  the  various  books 
of  the  Bible.  All  scholars  practically  agree  that  the 
critical  method  of  Bible  study  in  its  two  forms  has 
become  an  intellectual  necessity  in  the  interests  of 
human  knowledge.  The  right  of  critical  study  is, 
I  suppose,  fully  conceded.  The  battle  now  rages 
about  the  results  of  critical  study. 

The  most  important  and  continuous  professional 
study  of  the  scriptures  throughout  the  centuries  has 
been  in  the  interest  of  the  science  of  theology. 
Most  churchmen  of  every  class  have  regarded  the 
Bible  as  the  final  source  of  authority  for  religious 
opinions,  and  all  churchmen  have  regarded  its 
statements  of  great  weight  and  significance. 

The  study  of  the  Bible  here  undertaken  is  neither 
devotional,  literary,  historical,  critical,  nor  theology 
ical.  It  will  seek,  so  far  as  possible,  to  turn  aside 
from  current  forms  of  debate  and  to  take  the  Bible 
out  of  the  arena  for  a  quiet  study  of  its  contents. 


36  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

The  object  of  that  study  is  sociological.  It  will 
seek  a  frank  account  of  the  growth  and  function  of 
the  various  Hebrew  institutions,  with  some  attempt 
at  their  comparison  with  like  institutions  in  similar 
social  groups.  It  is  believed  that  the  Bible  is  par- 
ticularly adapted  to  such  treatment.  It  furnishes 
such  a  naive  and  first-hand  account  of  the  origin 
and  development  of  institutions  and  it  will  probably 
appear  that  the  historical  parts  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment are  among  our  most  precious  possessions  for 
the  purpose  of  scientific  study.  Such  a  study,  if 
successful,  will  furnish  guidance  for  the  interpre- 
tation of  the  Bible  in  the  other  departments  in 
which  it  is  used.  And  it  may  be  found  that  the 
sociological  examination  of  the  Bible  will  be  of 
importance  as  an  introduction  to  the  general  science 
of  sociology.  When  general  principles  can  stand 
the  test  of  concrete  illustration,  they  are  at  once 
more  secure  and  more  serviceable. 

The  New  Testament  is  not  available  for  sociolog- 
ical study  because  it  does  not  present  institutionst 
in  sufficient  perspective.  The  elevation  of  special 
discussions  of  particular  incidents  in  human  life 
into  general  principles  for  the  conduct  of  all  life, 
is  an  extremely  difficult  task.  It  does  not  question 
the  permanent  value  or  even  the  divine  origin  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  to  say  that  its  literal  use 


SCIENTIFIC   VIEWS    OF   THE    BIBLE        37 

for  the  reconstruction  of  society  is  an  impossible 
performance.  The  document  is  not  even  an  essay 
upon  the  structure  of  society.  It  is  neither  scientific 
in  form  nor  in  purpose.  It  is  the  glowing  utterance 
of  a  burning  heart.  It  seeks  the  regeneration  of 
individuals,  and  to  degrade  it  into  a  social  program 
is  both  a  social  and  a  religious  danger.  As  a  social 
program  it  would  lose  significance.  The  essays  in 
this  direction  from  Plato's  Republic  downward  have 
been  interesting  as  literary  output,  but  have  not 
been  important  as  social  forces. 

The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  gives  some  account  of 
an  institution,  namely  the  Christian  Church,  but  the 
statements  are  so  limited  and  the  information  so 
fragmentary  that  they  are  scarcely  important,  even 
for  the  study  of  the  Christian  Church  as  an  institu- 
tion of  history.  For  the  purposes  of  sociology,  the 
single  Book  of  Judges  is  worth  more  than  the 
whole  New  Testament.  The  value  of  those  vener- 
able stories  from  a  scientific  point  of  view  is  beyond 
price. 

Some  material  for  the  study  of  Hebrew  institu- 
tions may  be  found  outside  of  the  Bible,  and  of 
these  use  may  properly  be  made.  To  serve  a  prac- 
tical purpose,  the  results  of  studies  in  primitive 
culture  and  a  knowledge  of  current  sociological 
literature  will  be  assumed.    The  problem  of  Hebrew 


38  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

origins,  with  its  manifold  vexations,  will  not  be 
undertaken.  The  general  results  of  studies  in 
Semitic  culture  will  be  accepted  without  debate. 

The  object  of  the  study  will  be  to  apply  the 
sociological  method  as  indicated  in  the  definition  of 
the  science  to  the  facts  of  the  Hebrew  organic  life. 
The  Hebrew  social  group  will  be  seen  to  have  been 
family,  clan,  tribe,  and  nation,  and  therefore  to  fol- 
low the  usual  method  of  procedure  in  the  history 
of  social  groups.  The  changes  from  the  nomadic 
to  the  settled  life  in  Palestine  should  have  power- 
fully influenced  the  form  of  social  institutions,  and 
that  this  was  the  actual  result  is  manifest.  The 
three  primary  institutions,  the  family,  the  church, 
and  the  state,  undergo  modifications  and  come  to 
distinctness  of  function.  Modern  social  life  is  char- 
acterized by  the  development  of  the  state  to  the 
position  of  the  first  rank,  practically  inclusive  of  all 
other  institutions.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Hebrew 
records  show  the  great  significance  of  the  church 
as  the  source  of  law,  the  controller  of  domestic  life, 
while  the  state,  during  most  of  the  history,  is  only 
a  dependent  child. 

The  well-known  geography  of  Palestine  indicates 
a  poverty  for  the  Hebrew  commonwealth  beyond 
what  seems  to  be  exhibited  in  the  account  of  the 
kingdom  at  its  best.     There  may  be  some  oriental 


SCIENTIFIC   VIEWS    OF  THE   BIBLE        39 

exuberance  in  the  descriptions,  but  we  are  here 
brought  face  to  face  with  an  account  of  societies 
which  is  very  well  known  to  the  literature  of  social 
science.  Human  societies  are  divided  into  military 
and  industrial.  For  the  industrial  form  of  society 
the  need  of  great  fertility  and  natural  resources  Is 
obvious.  The  military  type  of  society,  on  the  other 
hand,  seeks  what  it  wants  and  takes  it  if  it  has  the 
power.  The  Hebrew  type  of  society  was  military. 
At  Its  strongest,  its  capital  Jerusalem  was  a  splen- 
did robber  fortress  from  which  tribute  was  levied 
upon  surrounding  peoples.  The  Hebrews  had  more 
than  their  share. 

Religious  Institutions  bulk  large  as  a  social  Influ- 
ence among  the  Hebrews,  and  this  Is  the  reason  why 
the  Jews  have  survived  as  a  people  while  they  have 
perished  as  a  state.  The  soul  of  the  Hebrew  people 
will  be  found  in  its  Idea  of  God  and  It  Is  with  that 
Idea  as  a  permanent  dynamic  In  human  affairs  that 
science  has  to  do.  It  has  been  a  common  mistake 
of  both  friends  and  enemies  of  religion  to  suppose 
that  religious  facts  were  somehow  outside  the 
ordinary  range  of  human  affairs,  and  had  no  cor- 
respondences with  the  usual  human  and  social 
activities. 

Perhaps  the  most  Important  conclusion  from  the 
result   of   the   study   of   Hebrew   Institutions   will 


40  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

be  the  recognition  of  the  power  of  rehgious  ideas 
and  their  correlation  with  poHtical  and  economic 
concerns.  Industrial  institutions,  as  well  as  the 
family  and  the  state,  were  profoundly  influenced  by 
the  local  conditions  under  which  the  Hebrew  peo- 
ple lived  at  various  times  in  their  social  experience. 
The  religious  significance  of  their  ideas  embodied 
in  their  institutions  has  a  note  of  universal  author- 
ity, and  it  is  of  the  first  scientific  importance  to  dis- 
cover their  nature  and  history. 

The  sociological  study  of  the  idea  of  God  differs 
entirely  from  either  its  philosophical  or  its  religious 
significance,  and  it  is  worth  while  to  consider  the 
distinction.  Philosophy  has  to  do  with  the  specu- 
lative aspects  of  the  idea;  religion  has  to  do  with 
its  power  to  inspire  worship  and  create  character; 
but  science  has  to  watch  the  working  form  that  the 
idea  takes  and  its  practical  aspects  in  the  realm  of 
affairs.  The  development  of  the  idea  of  God  in 
Hebrew  history  sheds  light  upon  the  analogous 
unfolding  first  of  all  of  the  religious  forms,  but 
afterward  of  all  other  institutions. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   LAND   AND   THE    PEOPLE 

The  conditions  under  which  a  people  lives  and 
works  have  long  been  known  to  be  influential  in 
shaping  character  and  forming  institutions.  Of 
this  matter  Aristotle  speaks  in  his  Politics.  Early 
civilizations  began  on  the  shores  of  fertile  rivers, 
both  on  account  of  a  surplus  of  bread  supply  and 
of  the  ease  of  transportation.  The  kind  of  native 
food  to  be  had  was  vastly  important  in  determining 
the  kind  of  order  a  social  group  could  develop.  It 
is  hard  for  us  to  feel  how  important  these  facts  are 
because  we  have  covered  the  earth  with  means  of 
transportation  and  have  laid  under  tribute  the 
resources  of  every  land  and  of  every  climate.  The 
earliest  men,  possibly  more  susceptible  to  physical 
influences,  as  Wallace  suggests,  were  profoundly 
impressed  with  the  class  of  facts  we  are  considering, 
but  even  a  people  like  the  Israelites  who  lived  in  the 
midst  of  the  ages  rather  than  in  the  early  times, 
who  were  protected  by  a  great  many  conventions, 
and  with  whom  also  transportation  had  become  an 
organized  fact,  were  yet  conditioned  in  the  number 

41 


42  RELIGION    IN    THE   MAKING 

of  people  possible  to  the  nation,  in  the  form  of 
their  occupations,  and  in  the  nature  of  their  civiliza- 
tion by  the  size  and  resources  of  the  land  which 
they  inherited. 

The  country  called  Palestine  was  never  large, 
though  of  course  the  boundaries  differed  at 
different  periods.  Nor  is  it  the  purpose  in  this 
work  to  give  any  full  account  of  the  geography 
and  resources  of  the  country,  yet  a  few  facts  must 
be  noted. 

The  extent  of  Palestine  was  about  one  hundred 
and  sixty  miles  long  and  sixty  miles  wide.  There 
were  about  six  thousand  square  miles  west  of  the 
Jordan  and  four  thousand  square  miles  east  of  the 
Jordan.  Palestine,  therefore,  was  about  the  size  of 
the  state  of  Vermont,  about  half  the  size  of  Greece, 
and  about  one  sixth  the  size  of  England.  The 
Jordan  valley  extends  from  the  sea  of  Galilee  to 
the  Dead  Sea.  The  mountains  are,  in  the  main, 
chalk  and  limestone  with  volcanic  rocks  about 
Galilee.  The  northern  part  of  the  country  was 
more  fertile,  its  valleys  were  wider.  About  Hebron 
in  the  south  was  found  a  stretch  of  country  that 
would  do  for  the  pasturage  of  flocks  and  the  culti- 
vation of  fields.  The  most  of  the  southern  part 
consists  of  narrow  valleys  where  the  hills  must  be 
terraced  in  order  to  protect  the  soil,  and  since  the 


LAND   AND    THE    PEOPLE  43 

rain  when  it  comes  is  often  fierce,  these  terraces 
were  frequently  washed  away  and  the  soil  must  be 
carried  back  again  at  the  expense  of  a  good  deal  of 
labor.     However,  the  country  would  yield  a  large 
food   supply   with   careful   culture,   particularly   as 
two  or  three  crops  a  year  might  be  secured.    There 
was  the  necessity  for  irrigation,  as  the  lack  of  rain 
was  often  a  danger  of  famine.     Down  by  the  sea 
there  were  parts  of  great  beauty  as  well  as  great 
fertility.     The  German  colonies  have  shown  what 
can  be  done  with  the  country  in  their  orange  groves 
and    fields    round    about    Jaffa,    and    the    splendid 
beauty  of  the  country  on  the  terraced  slopes  above 
Beirut  can  scarcely  be  surpassed  in  the  world.    But 
these  places  were  for  the  most  part  in  the  hands  of 
the  enemies  of  Israel.     The  mountains  are  not  so 
high  but  much  more  numerous  than  the  popular 
imagination  would  gather   from  the  Bible  record. 
The  heights  about  Jerusalem  were  from  two  thou- 
sand  five   hundred    feet    to    three    thousand    feet. 
There  are  a  good  many  springs  in  various  parts  of 
the   country,   some    forty   within   twenty   miles    of 
Jerusalem,   with   some  hot   springs   in   the   Jordan 
valley.    On  account  of  the  irregularity  of  the  water 
fall,   cisterns   and   the   preservation  of    rain-water 
were  important.     Water  systems,  including  "Solo- 
mon's pools"  of  uncertain  date,  were  undertaken. 


44  RELIGION   IN    THE    MAKING 

The  climate  varied  from  a  mild  temperate  in  the 
north  to  a  tropical  in  the  lower  Jordan.  The  mean 
temperature  of  the  country  was  about  seventy- 
degrees.  Rapid  changes  in  temperature,  however, 
occurred,  and  east  of  the  Jordan  it  might  go  down 
to  the  freezing  point  at  night  and  rise  to  eighty 
degrees  the  next  day. 

Such  a  variety  of  temiperature,  even  in  a  small 
country,  indicates  the  possibility  of  a  wide  range 
of  flora,  and  so  it  was.  No  less  than  three  thousand 
species  of  flov/ers  have  been  enumerated.  Among 
the  trees  were  oaks,  maples,  poplars,  pine,  cedar,  as 
well  as  some  mulberry  and  palm  trees.  Among  the 
fruits  were  apples,  quinces,  pears,  apricots,  citrons, 
olives,  pomegranates,  grapes,  and  figs.  Wheat  and 
barley  were  also  grown  as  well  as  cucumbers, 
tomatoes,  watermelons,  and  sugar-cane. 

The  fauna  combined  Asia  and  Africa  in  its  birds, 
reptiles,  and  mammals.  The  deer,  badger,  bear, 
leopard,  wolf,  and  jackal  were  not  unknown,  and 
the  useful  animals  were  domesticated.  As  many  as 
forty-three  species  of  fish  have  been  enumerated  in 
Galilee  and  the  Jordan. 

The  mineral  resources  of  the  country  were  very 
meager.  Some  iron  and  copper  have  been  found 
in  the  north,  and  asphalt,  salt,  and  phosphates  in 
the  south. 


LAND    AND   THE   PEOPLE  45 

The  country  can  hardly  be  said  to  correspond  to 
some  of  the  glowing  accounts  that  we  find  in  the 
oriental  writers  of  the  Bible.  It  was  not  a  land 
where  bread  could  be  eaten  without  scarceness 
unless  the  population  were  comparatively  small, 
and  certainly  it  was  not  "a  land  whose  stones  were 
iron  and  out  of  whose  hills  thou  mayst  dig  brass" 
(Deut.  viii.  9).  One  of  the  rules  of  war  indicates 
the  value  of  the  fruit  trees,  for  they  were  not  to 
destroy  them  when  they  were  making  siege  and 
thus  bring  famine — "For  the  tree  of  the  field  is 
man's  life"  (Deut.  xx.  19). 

The  resources  of  the  land  indicate  that  skill  and 
industry  must  be  of  great  importance  to  any  people 
who  would  make  it  their  home,  but  as  Holland  was 
able  to  reclaim  from  the  sea  the  fields  and  gardens, 
so  the  sons  of  Israel  were  able  to  develop  this  coun- 
try. The  description  of  it  as  "a  land  flowing  with 
milk  and  honey"  is  certainly  somewhat  exuberant 
unless  we  take  the  phrase  to  mean  that  there  were 
bees  in  the  wild  rocks  and  trees  and  that  it  was  a 
good  grazing  country.  The  fact  is  too  obvious  and 
too  prosaic  to  be  quite  just  as  interpretation. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  before  the  men  of 
Israel  came  into  this  land,  it  had  been  occupied  for, 
probably,  thousands  of  years  and  had  been  a  high- 
way of  old  civilizations.     There  was  an  Egyptian 


46  RELIGION   IN    THE    MAKING 

road  along  the  coast  of  Mt.  Carmel  and  thence 
north  that  branched  from  Carmel  along  the  Plains 
of  Esdraelon  to  Galilee,  thence  to  Damascus.  From 
Damascus  caravans  passed  and  repassed  to  the 
east  and  southeast.  From  Damascus  directly 
south  to  Elath  on  the  Red  Sea  was  another  high- 
way. Their  neighbors,  the  Phoenicians,  were  al- 
ready masters  of  the  seas,  so  that  from  a  very  early 
date  in  the  history  of  Israel  commerce  was  possible 
to  them,  and  the  craftsmanship  which  commerce 
makes  possible.  Just  as  in  Damascus  to-day  out 
of  the  crudest  shops  and  the  simplest  tools  exquis- 
ite work  is  produced,  so  classes  of  the  Hebrews 
became  skilled  workmen.  Though  there  is  the 
pathetic  saying  in  the  Judges  that  there  was  a  time 
when  there  was  no  smith  in  Israel.  The  later 
prophets,  however,  speak  of  workers  in  silver,  brass, 
and  iron,  and  the  whole  range  of  imagery  indicates 
progress  in  the  industrial  arts.  The  possibility  of 
industry  and  commerce  is  very  important  to  the 
social  study  because  of  its  influence  upon  the  size 
of  the  social  group.  Three  millions  of  people  may 
have  been  the  highest  number  of  inhabitants  ever 
known  to  the  Hebrew  nation,  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  high  state  of  development  in  their  work  as 
gardeners  and  an  extension  of  industry  into  other 


LAND   AND    THE    PEOPLE  47 

lines  would  have  enabled  them  to  reach  a  popula- 
tion of  twice  the  number. 

The  influence  of  physical  environment  upon  a 
people  must  also  be  coupled  with  the  thought  that 
man  himself  makes  changes  of  marked  importance. 
He  removes  forests  and  changes  the  amount  and 
time  of  the  rainfall.  He  drains  the  country  and 
effects  evaporation.  By  the  processes  of  drainage 
he  enlarges  his  rivers,  and,  again,  he  makes  them 
small  by  cultivating  the  valleys  through  which  they 
flow,  absorbing  the  drainage  of  the  watersheds  in 
his  fields.  He  guides  the  channels  of  rivers, 
changes  their  courses,  and  builds  bulwarks  against 
the  sea.  He  erects  cities,  builds  roads,  digs  canals. 
These  things  he  did  in  ancient  times,  and  later  he 
has  learned  to  tunnel  mountains.  One  of  the  most 
important  influences  which  he  has  exerted  has  been 
upon  the  distribution  of  life.  Friendly  plants  and 
animals  he  has  increased  in  number.  He  has  fought 
against  all  noxious  forms  of  life  and  has  so  far 
succeeded  as  to  indicate  In  time  to  come  a  complete 
victory.  This  physical  work  of  men  has  not  only 
affected  the  world,  but  the  work  has  changed  the 
men  as  they  have  done  it.  It  has  been  their  princi- 
pal school  in  which  they  have  developed  strength 
and  have  learned  knowledge. 

An    Intensive    civilization   has   always    been   the 


48  RELIGION   IN    THE    MAKING 

result  of  successful  cultivation  of  fertile  soil,  liber- 
ating labor  for  industrial  and  commercial  employ- 
ments. It  must  be  conceded  that  Israel  worked  out 
an  important  civilization.  So  great  a  literature 
would  have  been  impossible  to  a  rude  people.  The 
strength  of  the  army,  when  all  deductions  are 
made,  is  sufficient  to  show  the  strength  of  the  peo- 
ple. The  luxury  of  the  upper  classes,  so  strongly 
denounced  by  the  prophets,  indicates  a  surplus  of 
wealth.  Palestine  was  not  the  finest  country  in  the 
world,  but  a  country  that  could  breed  such  war- 
riors, poets,  and  sages,  must  have  proved  more 
favorable  for  human  livelihood  than  many  critics 
have  supposed.  Perhaps  in  the  balance  of  advan- 
tages and  difficulties  there  was  exactly  the  sort  of 
conditions  for  making  a  great  breed  of  men. 
Scotland,  Norway,  and  New  England,  as  well  as 
Greece,  have  been  chiefly  noted  for  the  making  of 
men.  Palestine,  in  some  respects  superior,  was  in 
this  respect  at  least  the  equal  of  any  of  them. 

The  land  from  the  snow  peak  of  the  great  Mt. 
Hermon  in  the  Lebanon  range  down  to  the  Dead 
Sea,  and  from  the  Jordan  to  the  Mediterranean, 
offers  such  a  variety  of  soil  and  climate,  and  the 
location,  practically  at  the  junction  of  three  conti- 
nents, offers  such  contiguity  that  it  was  in  some 
respects  the  best  place  on  the  planet  for  the  develop- 


LAND   AND   THE   PEOPLE  49 

ment  of  a  race  with  a  cosmopolitan  mission,  and  in 
the  midst  of  it  the  location  of  Jerusalem,  surrounded 
by  hills  and  easily  defended,  was  an  ideal  fortress 
for  a  small  but  warlike  nation. 

When  this  country  began  to  be  inhabited  it  is 
not  possible  to  decide.  It  is  enough  to  know  that 
neither  the  native  dates  nor  the  equally  simple  gene- 
alogy of  the  early  books  of  the  Bible  can  be  re- 
garded as  coming  into  the  realm  of  historic  facts. 
It  is  not  necessary  here  to  go  into  any  extended 
discussion  of  the  antiquity  of  man  or  the  methods 
by  which  he  developed  a  civilization  through 
struggle  and  reaction.  Scholars  now  agree  that 
such  interpretation  may  be  given  to  the  record  as 
to  leave  room  enough  for  all  the  requirements  of 
modern  science.  The  victory  of  geology  has  been 
followed  by  that  of  biology  and  anthropology.  But 
while  this  is  true,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
substantial  historicity  of  the  Old  Testament  never 
stood  on  firmer  ground  than  it  does  at  present. 
And  sociology  comes  to  reenforce  the  claim  of  the 
validity  of  the  records  by  exhibiting  the  normal 
development  of  its  history,  and  this  latest  science 
can  work  with  the  Hebrew  material  in  exactly  the 
same  spirit  and  under  the  guidance  of  the  same 
principles  as  it  would  work  with  the  genesis  of 
either  Egyptian  or  Greek  institutions. 
4 


50 


RELIGION    IN    THE    ?^IAKING 


But  who  were  these  Hebrews?  They  were  cer- 
tainly not  near  the  beginnings  of  things,  and  we 
cannot  take  the  short  account  between  the  opening 
of  Genesis  and  the  call  of  Abraham  as  anything 
like  a  full  narrative  of  the  history  of  the  human 
family.  Nor  will  it  do  to  suppose  that  Shem,  Ham 
and  Japhet  were  a  lonely  trinity  who  peopled  the 
whole  earth. 

The  Semites  were  a  great  race  and  of  very  great 
antiquity.  Long  before  Joshua  led  his  people 
across  the  Jordan  and  long  before  the  promises 
were  made  to  Abram,  the  Semites  were  in  Canaan. 
And  before  Nebuchadnezzar  lived,  and  long  before 
Moses,  the  Babylonians  had  overrun  Canaan. 
Arabia  was  probably  the  cradle  of  the  Semitic  peo- 
ples, and  these  peoples  included  not  only  Arabi- 
ans, but  Babylonians,  Assyrians,  Phoenicians,  and 
Canaanites.  It  is  now  certain  that  the  speech  of 
Canaan,  Edom,  and  Moah  were  dialects  of  one 
language.  The  "language  of  Canaan"  was  one 
speech  just  as  the  speech  of  Britain  is  one  language. 

The  Moabite  Stone,  now  to  be  seen  in  the 
museum  of  the  Louvre,  with  its  thirty-four  lines  in 
the  Hebrew-Phoenician  characters  and  which  records 
the  victory  of  Mesha,  king  of  Moab,  over  Israel,  is 
a  proof  discovered  to  us  in  modern  times  of  the 
substantial  unity  of  these  people,  which  is  far  more 


LAND   AND    THE    PEOPLE  51 

important  than  the  trivial  verification  of  the  result 
of  a  single  battle.  When  the  sons  of  Israel  came 
into  Palestine,  they  v^ere  coming  to  the  land  of 
their  kinsmen.  But  it  is  pretty  v^ell  assured  that 
not  only  were  there  Semites,  but  there  v^ere  also 
fragments  of  that  great  Mongolian  empire  which 
recent  historians  are  trying  to  fit  into  ancient  his- 
tory— the  empire  of  the  Hittites.  Aryans  there 
were  also,  among  them  probably  the  Philistines 
along  the  sea.  It  seems  quite  certain  also  that  the 
Semites,  dominant  as  they  were  in  the  valley  of  the 
Euphrates,  had  at  that  time  also  made  for  them- 
selves  a  place  in  Egypt,  being  those  somewhat 
mysterious  shepherd  kings  who  for  perhaps  one 
hundred  years  were  in  control.  That  Thothmes 
who  turned  Asia  out  of  Africa  is  as  significant  in 
his  day  as  those  Greek  heroes  who  turned  back  the 
tide  of  the  Persians.  The  splendid  ruin  of  the 
great  temple  at  Karnak  tells  the  story  and  indicates 
that  even  at  that  time  Palestine  had  a  good  degree 
of  civilization.  Other  works  must  tell  of  the 
Egyptian  library  at  Tel-el-Amarna,  and  the  vast 
discoveries  in  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates.  Enough 
to  say  here  that  Israel  was  not  only  related  to  great 
and  powerful  peoples,  but  its  home  in  Palestine  lay 
between  the  two  important  civilizations  of  Egypt 


52  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

and  the  Euphrates.     These  two  were  part  of  its 
environment. 

It  would  be  a  gross  mistake  to  suppose  that 
environment  is  chiefly  physical,  at  least  after  the 
human  race  passes  beyond  the  primitive  stages.  It 
is  chiefly  social.  It  is  the  action  of  group  upon 
group,  taking  two  chief  forms,  war  and  commerce, 
and  it  is  perhaps  difficult  to  decide  which  form  of 
contact  is  the  more  effective  influence.  The  Is- 
raelites had  not  only  the  larger  life  of  the  Eu- 
phrates from  which  they  are  said  to  have  come  in 
the  loins  of  Abraham,  and  of  Egypt  where  the  sons 
of  Jacob  made  their  home,  but  they  had  a  much 
more  intricate  social  environment  in  the  families  of 
Canaan,  many  of  them  their  kinsmen  whom  they 
found  in  the  land,  who  lived  with  them,  who  were 
absorbed  by  them,  but  not  wdthout  the  defeated 
leaving  many  and  many  a  mark  upon  the  institu- 
tions and  life  of  the  conquerors.  This  is  the  old 
story  of  history.  The  men  of  the  soil  strangely 
influence  the  life  of  the  foreigners  who  come  to 
rule  over  them.  So  did  the  Greeks  affect  the 
Romans,  which  was  the  influence  of  culture,  and  so 
did  the  Saxons  triumph  at  last  over  the  invading 
Normans,  which  was  the  influence  of  numbers  and 
of  strength.  Of  this  we  shall  see  more  as  we  study 
the  development  of  religious  institutions. 


LAND   AND  THE   PEOPLE  53 

More  definitely  to  consider  the  question  of  the 
Hebrew  people,  it  is  necessary  to  offer  some  con- 
siderations upon  the  subject  of  the  race  problem. 
No  other  question  has  been  more  eagerly  studied 
in  recent  years,  and  no  other  important  question 
seems  further  from  adequate  solution.  The  dis- 
tinctions of  language  have  been  given  up,  so  far  as 
modern  peoples  are  concerned.  Widely  variant 
strains  of  blood  may  use  common  speech,  as  German 
or  English,  and  we  cannot  decide  in  the  same 
simple  manner  that  the  men  of  Gilead  did  when 
they  demanded  that  the  men  of  Ephraim  should 
try  to  say  "shibboleth"  (Judges  xii.  6).  But  lan- 
guage was  at  one  time  much  more  significant  of 
blood  relationship  than  it  is  to-day.  The  most 
obvious  characteristic  of  race  distinction  is  that 
of  color,  and  we  still  have  the  white,  yellow,  and 
black  races  as  the  three  great  distinctions  of  the 
human  family.  But  color  shades  into  color  and  as 
many  as  thirty-two  races  have  been  delimited  by 
color  shades.  Of  late  years  the  matter  of  head 
form,  particularly  among  the  French  writers  and 
those  influenced  by  them,  has  been  more  significant 
of  race  distinction  than  any  other  single  fact,  and 
we  read  of  the  "long  head,"  the  "round  head,"  and 
the  "medium  head,"  as  descriptive  of  races,  par- 
ticularly the  three  types  that  seem  to  be  recognized 


54  RELIGION   IN    THE    MAKING 

among  the  people  of  Europe.  But  the  doctrine  that 
the  men  with  the  long  heads  succeed  in  living  in  the 
lowlands,  amassing  wealth  and  gaining  power,  may 
just  as  readily  give  way  to  the  doctrine  that  low- 
lands, wealth,  and  power  tend  to  develop  a  longer 
form  of  head  in  the  men  who  possess  them.  The 
color  distinctions  of  the  race  are  very  old,  however 
unsatisfactory  they  may  be  from  a  scientific  point  of 
view.  The  characteristic  distinction  in  features  seems 
also  to  be  ancient,  and  scholars  claim  to  have  recog- 
nized upon  Egyptian  monuments  thousands  of  years 
old  the  likeness  of  Aryan,  Mongolian,  and  Negro. 

Lester  F.  Ward,  the  American  sociologist,  was 
the  first  to  emphasize  distinctly  the  psychical  fac- 
tors in  human  development  as  opposed  to  the  idea 
that  social  groups  grow,  develop,  and  decay,  just 
as  plants  or  animals  do.  In  this  matter  he  stood 
over  against  the  position  taken  by  Herbert  Spencer. 
We  may  not  agree  with  his  conception  of  what  a 
psychical  factor  Is,  nor  even  follow  him  in  his  con- 
clusions as  to  what  the  psychical  factor  does,  but 
the  distinction  has  become  one  of  the  greatest 
moment  to  all  students  of  social  science.  In  some 
form  or  other  the  doctrine  of  mental  qualities  and 
resources  as  marks  of  distinction  among  the  peo- 
ples of  the  earth  is  coming  into  sway  over  the 
minds  of  scholars.     Gabriel  Tarde,  whose  untimely 


LAND    AND   THE    PEOPLE  55 

death  the  world  of  thinkers  mourns,  in  his  work  on 
the  Laws  of  Imitation  set  forth  with  great  force,  if 
not  with  the  customary  GalHc  clearness,  the  method 
by  which  from  man  to  man,  from  brute  to  brute, 
the  social  contagion  spreads.  Others  have  worked 
in  the  same  field  who  may  not  now  be  mentioned, 
but  the  conclusion  from  many  labors  in  many  fields 
amounts  to  a  practical  demonstration  that  the 
physical  environment  is  chiefly  effective  in  its  con- 
trol of  a  social  group  when  that  social  group  is 
undeveloped,  small  in  numbers,  and  is  engaged  in 
piteous  struggle  for  a  livelihood.  As  the  group  ad- 
vances in  civilization,  it  learns  more  and  more  to 
control  its  physical  surroundings;  as  the  soil  and 
climate  lose  their  controlling  power,  other  bonds 
become  of  more  importance.  It  is  then  a  question 
of  ideas,  faiths,  and  traditions  embodied  in  the 
institutions  of  the  state  and  the  church  which  have 
the  greatest  weight.  The  conventions  which  shield 
every  organized  social  group  from  the  domination 
of  geography  are  the  forms  and  forces  of  most 
scientific  value.  Social  groups  tend  to  form  what 
has  been  called  "the  social  mind,"  but  perhaps  even 
more  marked  is  the  fact  that  they  develop  what 
may  be  called  a  social  character.  That  character 
reveals  itself  in  the  way  in  which  a  people  works 
and  the  ends  which   it   seeks.     Among  the   early 


56  RELIGION    IN    THE    MAKING 

tribes  some  were  military  and  loved  to  fight  and 
steal.  Some  developed  a  spirit  of  peace  which 
degenerated  at  times  into  cowardice.  These  men 
must  take  upon  them  the  burden  of  toil.  It  would 
be  easy  to  show  that  the  art,  the  literature,  and  all 
the  higher  expressions  of  the  life  of  the  various 
peoples,  fully  support  the  doctrine  here  set  forth. 
The  significance  of  the  race  type  of  the  Hebrew  in 
neither  ancient  nor  modern  times  has  been  in  any 
question  of  head  form,  for  in  this  he  seems  to  assim- 
ilate to  the  people  among  whom  he  lives.  It  is  not 
at  all  in  the  special  marks  of  physiognomy  sometimes 
seen  and  with  which  we  associate  the  word  ''J^w." 
In  Palestine  the  Jew,  the  Arab,  and  the  Syrian  can 
scarcely  be  marked  one  from  the  other  save  in  the 
various  Jew  groups  living  together  in  Jerusalem. 

It  was  the  content  of  the  religious  experience  of 
the  Hebrew  that  made  him  a  chosen  and  a  peculiar 
people.  It  was  his  pathetic  and  age-long  struggle 
after  God,  a  struggle  unique  among  the  nations  of 
the  earth.  When  the  Hebrew  is  described  as  one 
of  the  Semites,  he  has  not  been  disclosed.  It  is  far 
more  scientific  to  say  the  Hebrews  were  the  people 
of  Jehovah.  Their  common  religious  life  marks 
them  in  their  history  as  a  nation,  and  it  is  the  same 
common  religious  life  which  has  thus  far  preserved 
them  as  one  people  in  the  Dispersion. 


CHAPTER  VI 
DEVELOPMENT  OE  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD 

In  order  to  get  on  it  is  desirable  to  avoid,  so  far 
as  possible,  all  questions  of  philosophy,  as  well  as 
the  ordinary  debates  of  criticism  and  of  theology. 
Before  proceeding  to  an  examination  of  the  part 
that  the  idea  of  God  plays  in  the  unfolding  of 
Hebrew  institutions,  it  is  necessary  to  obtain  a 
clear  view  of  certain  important  particulars.  The 
object  of  the  discussion  is  not  to  justify  nor  to  con- 
demn the  Bible  view  of  God,  nor  even  to  exhibit 
what  that  view  is,  except  in  so  far  as  it  is  necessary 
to  have  some  definiteness  in  the  idea  in  order  to 
show  just  how  it  worked  in  making  changes  in  the 
Hebrew  religious  life. 

First  of  all,  it  is  necessary  to  observe  that  changes 
in  the  form  of  the  idea  of  God  are  clearly  exhibited 
in  the  Bible  history.  And  this  will  be  seen  to  be 
one  of  the  chief  causes  for  the  existence  of  that 
history.  The  whole  history  of  sacred  places  and 
persons,  of  sacrijfices  and  of  rituals,  of  festivals 
and  of  fasts,  is  the  effort  of  men  to  express  fitly 
their  idea  of  God.     If  what  may  be  termed  the 

57 


58  RELIGION    IN    THE    MAKING 

apparatus  of  religion  undergoes  serious  modifica- 
tion, it  is  because  the  fundamental  religious  ideas 
have  also  undergone  change. 

Philosophy  may  be  under  compulsion  to  account 
for  the  idea  of  God,  but  sociology  accepts  the  idea 
of  God  as  an  historic  fact  and  seeks  to  exhibit  its 
workings  in  human  affairs.  Fortunately  we  do  not 
have  to  attempt  an  explanation  of  religious  origins. 
Religion  is  a  human  experience  at  once  primary 
and  universal.  It  is  found  in  some  form  among 
all  peoples.  It  is  probably  the  most  distinctive 
human  interest.  Man  is  most  man  when  he  prays. 
Other  animals  show  rudiments  of  the  property 
idea.  The  religious  interest  and  the  economic  in- 
terest are  the  two  great  forces  to  take  account  of 
in  estimating  human  experience.  The  altar  and 
the  prayer,  the  hope  and  the  fear,  arise  where  God 
is.  The  Hebrew  people  in  having  a  religion  share 
in  the  common  experience  of  the  race.  The 
uniqueness  of  Hebrew  history  consists  in  the  fact 
that  religion  is  from  the  beginning  and  to  the  end 
its  chief  interest.  Among  no  other  people  is  there 
anything  like  such  a  history  of  the  idea  of  God  as 
among  the  Hebrews.  It  was  their  unique  experi- 
ence to  begin  with  a  form  of  religion  showing 
many  processes  of  earlier  survivals  but  which 
worked  out  in  the  course  of  centuries  into  a  per- 


THE   IDEA   OF   GOD  59 

manent  form  of  monotheism.  The  Greek  thinkers 
developed  a  form  of  monotheism,  but  it  was  as  an 
object  of  speculative  thought.  The  Greek  people 
had  no  part  in  the  process.  East  India,  and  even 
Egypt,  may  have  had  some  latent  form  of  mono- 
theism, but  it  is  the  gray  mist  of  a  sterile  specula- 
tion and  is  not  warm  with  the  red  blood  of  a  vital 
human  experience.  All  the  philosophies  and  the- 
ologies of  the  Christian  centuries  have  built  upon 
the  idea  of  God  as  worked  out  by  the  Hebrew  peo- 
ple. It  is  the  one  illustration  of  human  history 
showing  an  age-long  process  of  a  great  idea  work- 
ing out  to  completeness  and  perfection.  It  is  there- 
fore with  the  exhibition  of  the  idea  of  God  as  a 
living  thing  among  living  men  that  our  studies  have 
to  do. 

It  is  necessary  to  clear  up  a  possible  misconcep- 
tion. It  may  be  supposed  that  the  suggestion  that 
the  idea  of  God  could  undergo  any  development  is 
essentially  a  denial  of  the  reality  of  the  being  of 
God.  Some  would  hold  that  unless  the  thought  of 
God  was  revealed  in  its  fulness  at  the  beginning 
and  remained  unchanged  to  the  end,  then  there  is 
no  other  God  than  men  have  made  for  themselves 
in  the  different  ages.  To  such  minds  the  history 
of  the  Idea  of  God  has  the  same  curious  interest  as 


6o  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

the  exhibition  of  costumes  in  some  historical 
museum. 

It  is  necessary  to  pause  here  and  take  our  bear- 
ings. Men  at  no  time  have  been  able  to  hold  views 
on  any  subject  except  as  related  to  human  experi- 
ence and  except  as  conditioned  by  human  culture. 
The  same  stars  have  lit  up  the  sky  of  night  since 
the  beginning,  but  it  needed  the  slow  development 
of  mathematics  and  the  still  slower  development  of 
the  telescope  to  furnish  for  us  a  map  of  the  heavens 
and  an  intelligible  account  of  other  worlds  than 
ours.  The  study  of  the  stars  as  a  history  passes 
from  astrology  into  astronomy  with  the  enlarge- 
ment of  human  experience  and  with  the  develop- 
ment of  science. 

It  would  not  be  rational  to  say  that  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  beauty  because  Art  has  a  history. 
From  some  points  of  view  the  crude  and  pathetic 
beginnings  of  artistic  representation  in  the  adorn- 
ment, or  even  mutilation,  of  the  body  are  more 
impressive  than  painting,  statue,  or  cathedral. 
They  exhibit  the  stir  of  life  behind  the  heart  of 
man  and  the  promises  of  the  Infinite  travail  before 
there  shall  be  born  to  the  race  any  authoritative 
expression  of  human  wonder  and  imagination. 
The  experience  of  every  living  thing  is  affected 
by  its  own   organization   and   environment.     The 


THE   IDEA   OF   GOD  6l 

humblest  insect  mirrors  just  as  much  of  the  uni- 
verse as  it  can  use.  The  same  holds  true  of  the 
rudest  savage  and  the  noblest  sage.  It  would  be 
impossible  for  a  man  who  had  no  conception  of  the 
world  to  know  that  God  is  the  creator  of  the  world. 
There  are  savages  who  have  no  name  for  the  whole 
of  the  island  on  which  they  live.  They  only  name 
a  part  of  it.  The  primitive  man  is  incapable  of 
general  conceptions.  He  may  know  green  or  yel- 
low, but  he  has  no  name  for  color.  He  may  recog- 
nize oak  or  pine,  but  he  has  no  word  for  tree. 
Though  such  a  man  had  angels  for  interpreters 
and  a  book  let  down  from  heaven  for  authority,  he 
could  never  comprehend  the  statement  that  "the 
Lord,  the  Creator  of  the  ends  of  the  earth,  fainteth 
not,  neither  is  weary;  there  is  no  searching  of  his 
understanding." 

Polytheism  grows  out  of  concreteness.  Each 
form  of  power  may  be  divine,  but  one  God  who 
sums  up  all  power  is  impossible  where  forces  have 
no  manifest  unity  and  so  can  have  no  common  ex- 
pression. Ancestor  worship  will  flourish  where 
clan  is  marked  off  from  clan,  where  enmities  are 
strange  and  deep,  and  where  the  shadowy  thought 
of  the  founder  of  the  race  becomes  impressive  as 
the  noblest  object  of  personal  experience.  The 
family,  the  clan,  the  tribe,  and  the  nation  as  forms 


62  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

of  social  groups  are  influential  in  determining  not 
alone  the  nature  of  worship,  the  position  of  the 
priesthood,  the  nature  of  the  shrine,  but  also  the 
character  of  the  fundamental  ideas  which  religion 
seeks  to  express.  The  Hebrew  history  therefore 
shares  with  other  human  history  in  the  disclosure 
and  the  unfolding  of  religious  ideas  and  of  religious 
life.  It  differs  from  every  other  history  in  the 
value  of  its  experience  and  the  permanence  of  the 
result. 

In  dealing  with  the  material  furnished  by  the 
Bible,  the  problem  to  exhibit  the  idea  of  God 
actually  at  work  among  men,  and  hence  the  record 
as  history,  must  remain  our  chief  concern.  The 
literature  lends  itself  to  this  treatment  because  most 
of  the  modern  problems  were  entirely  foreign  to 
the  minds  of  the  men  who  wrote  the  books  and  the 
material  is  furnished  for  us  without  preconception 
or  prejudice. 

For  the  sake  of  those  who  would  understand,  a 
word  is  offered  here  not  needful  to  the  scope  of  our 
scientific  study.  But  it  is  a  word  that  may  be 
spoken  from  one  man  to  another  to  help  him  in  his 
difficulty.  The  universe  is  a  perpetual  library  of 
perfect  revelation.  It  exhibited  a  perfect  botany 
before  Linnaeus  and  a  perfect  astronomy  before 
Copernicus.     It  contained  a  perfect  catalog  of  all 


THE   IDEA   OF   GOD  63 

possible  natural  forces  and  of  human  power  over 
them  before  a  single  mechanical  appliance  was  in 
the  hand  of  man.  It  also  contained  a  perfect  reve- 
lation of  the  life,  the  thought,  and  the  will  of  that 
Being  who  is  the  soul  of  the  universe  before  ever 
altars  smoked,  or  poet  sang,  or  seer  had  vision,  or 
prophet  spoke.  The  best  and  wisest  men,  whether 
mechanics  or  scholars,  saints  or  philosophers,  are 
those  who  have  read  most  humbly  the  library  of  the 
universe  and  who  have  worked  most  loyally  with 
the  forces  it  contains  in  accordance  with  the  laws 
by  which  they  operate.  Living  men  in  every  time 
have  been  those  who  have  felt  the  throb  of  a  com- 
mon life  which  is  universal.  Such  men  not  alone 
listen  for,  but  also  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and 
these  men  know  that  the  holy  line  of  God's  prophets 
remains  unbroken. 

It  is  hard  for  us  to  understand  many  things  in 
the  Hebrew  record  because  we  have  no  Hebrew 
sense  of  the  importance  of  the  Name.  Names  of 
individuals  were  given  on  account  of  special  char- 
acteristics. Names  were  changed  to  signalize  some 
special  event  or  some  particular  change  in  charac- 
ter. If  the  names  of  men  were  thus  particularly 
significant,  of  how  much  greater  moment  was  the 
name  of  God.  The  modern  idea  of  blasphemy  Is 
the  calling  down  a  curse  from  God  upon  men.     It 


64  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

does  not  seem  to  have  been  so  among  the  Hebrews. 
Blasphemy  was  of  special  importance  because  it 
cast  contempt  upon  the  divine  name.  It  was,  there- 
fore, treason  against  the  Most  High.  The  sin  of 
the  son  of  Shelomith  (Lev.  xxiv.  ii)  was  that  he 
blasphemed  the  Name  and  cursed.  In  the  Second 
Law  (Deut.  xxviii.  58)  the  people  were  called  upon 
to  fear  ''this  glorious  and  fearful  name  Jehovah  thy 
God"  under  penalty  of  all  the  plagues  and  diseases 
that  had  been  known  by  Egypt. 

Jehovah  was  this  sacred  name.  Again  and  again 
in  the  account  in  Exodus,  Jehovah  is  called  by  way 
of  eminence  the  ''God  of  the  Hebrews."  Nearly 
seven  thousand  times  does  this  name  occur  in  the 
Old  Testament  scriptures,  and  the  history  of  the 
idea  of  God  is  largely  concerned  with  transactions 
which  Jehovah  had  with  his  ov/n  people. 

The  only  other  sacred  name  that  we  need  to 
consider  with  any  particularity  is  Elohim,  which  is 
often  found  in  combination  with  Jehovah.  Jehovah 
Elohim,  or  the  Lord  God.  But  the  word  Elohim  is 
significant  because  it  is  not  always  used  as  another 
name  of  Jehovah.  The  gods  of  Egypt  were  also 
called  Elohim  (Ex.  xii.  12).  This  word  Elohim 
seems  to  signify  the  Heavenly  Powers  and  may  be 
regarded  either  as  plural  or  singular.  So  it  is  the 
name  distinctive  of  the  great  hymn  of  creation  with 


THE   IDEA  OF   GOD  65 

which  Genesis  begins.  But  in  the  giving  of  the 
sacred  law,  the  commandment  was  "Thou  shalt  have 
no  other  Elohim  before  me"  (Ex.  xx.  3).  The 
men  of  Ashdod  recognized  that  there  was  a  "god 
of  Israel"  who  could  be  called  Elohim  just  as 
rightly  as  their  own  Dagon  (i  Sam.  v.  7).  When 
Israel  sang  its  deliverance  from  Egypt  and 
Pharaoh's  host,  they  chanted  "Jehovah  is  a  man  of 
war;  Jehovah  is  his  name."  Then  they  compare 
him  to  other  Heavenly  Powers.  "Who  is  like  unto 
thee,  O  Jehovah,  among  the  Elohim?  Who  is  like 
thee,  glorious  in  holiness,  fearful  in  praises,  doing 
wonders."  As  Jehovah  is  a  man  of  war,  so  he  is 
often  significantly  called  "the  Lord  of  Hosts."  In 
both  first  and  second  Samuel  this  God  of  the 
armies  is  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  sacred 
ark,  the  symbol  of  his  presence,  in  time  of  battle. 
But  in  the  passages  in  the  prophets,  of  which  there 
are  very  many,  the  Lord  of  Hosts  seems  to  have 
become  far  more  than  the  God  of  the  ranks  of 
Israel.  He  is  the  Jehovah  of  the  angels,  the  Lord 
of  the  stars  and  all  the  hosts  of  heaven. 

To  sum  up  briefly,  the  particular  name  for  the 
divine  being,  the  name  of  the  jealous  God  who  has 
chosen  Israel  for  his  bride  and  who  stands  distinct 
over  against  all  other  celestial  powers,  is  Jehovah. 
But  this  Jehovah,  preeminent  over  all  others,  is 
5 


66  RELIGION    IN    THE    MAKING 

called  again  and  again  by  the  name  given  to  divini- 
ties in  general.  His  place  among  them,  however, 
is  held  secure.  As  one  of  the  old  Hebrew  lyrics 
sings,  ''Give  unto  Jehovah,  O  ye  Elohim,  give  unto 
Jehovah  glory  and  strength."  For  our  purposes 
it  is  not  necessary  to  consider  the  various  theories 
of  the  documents  used  in  composition  of  the  Hebrew 
books  as  exhibited  by  the  use  of  the  divine  names. 
A  consistent  development  of  the  idea  of  God  is 
not  found  in  the  scriptures.  Some  would  explain 
this  by  the  confusion  of  the  documents  and  the 
accidents  of  editors.  Whatever  truth  there  may  be 
in  these  contentions,  it  does  not  really  affect  the 
problem,  for  it  may  be  noted  that  the  development 
of  no  other  great  human  interest  is  regular.  Men 
do  not  ascend  in  wisdom  and  character  step  by  step. 
Individuals  may  be  explicable  as  the  interpreters  of 
groups  conditioned  by  particular  social  circum- 
stances, while  the  individuals  whom  we  select  as 
to  another.  It  Is  at  the  roots  of  social  growths  that 
the  unities  are  found.  For  our  purposes  we  accept 
the  narrative  as  it  stands,  and  with  very  few  sug- 
gestions It  is  self-explanatory.  God  comes  occa- 
sionally to  meet  with  those  for  whom  He  cares.  He 
glorifies  by  His  presence  the  emergencies  of  life. 
Even  in  the  gracious  garden  where  man  Is  yet 
untouched  by  sin,  Adam  has  no  constant  companion- 


THE   IDEA   OF   GOD  6*7 

ship  but  hears  the  voice  of  God  in  the  cool  of  the 
day  as  he  walks  in  the  garden.  And  this  presence 
is  so  palpable  that  Adam  and  his  wife  think  to  hide 
among  the  trees  (Gen.  iii.  8).  Cain  holds  a  con- 
versation with  the  Lord  and  intimates  the  divine 
ignorance  by  the  question  which  proclaims  his  own 
folly.  It  is  a  conversation  that  no  man  would  have 
dared  to  hold  who  knew  that  God  is  all-seeing 
(Gen.  iv.  9,  10). 

In  the  curious  story  of  the  building  of  Babel,  the 
project  was  that  the  tower  should  reach  unto 
heaven.  This  was  as  though  the  Greeks  had  under- 
taken to  storm  the  heights  of  Olympus.  Jehovah 
in  his  upper  palaces  heard  the  account  of  this  effort 
but  he  does  not  seem  to  have  understood  the  full 
force  of  it,  for  the  record  is  "Jehovah  came  down  to 
see  the  city  and  the  tower  which  the  children  of 
men  builded"  (Gen.  xi.  5).  The  foundations  of 
the  tower  were  all  laid;  the  structure  was  on  its 
way ;  being  one  people  with  one  language,  danger 
impended,  and  Jehovah  adds,  "And  now  nothing 
will  be  withholden  from  them  which  they  purpose 
to  do."  To  save  the  sanctity  of  the  divine  abode, 
the  common  language  was  confounded,  the  men 
were  scattered  abroad,  the  city  building  was  aban- 
doned, and  a  primitive  explanation  of  the  race 
question  was  left  on  record. 


68  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

In  the  case  of  Noah  how  near  do  we  come  to 
those  early  Semitic  interpretations  of  sacrifice 
where  God  partakes  of  a  meal  with  those  with  whom 
He  has  special  relations.  An  altar  is  builded  to  the 
Lord  and  the  clean  beasts  become  burnt  offerings, 
and  when  the  Lord  had  smelled  the  sweet  savor, 
like  one  content  after  a  sensuous  experience,  He 
says  in  His  heart,  "I  will  not  again  curse  the  ground 
any  more  for  man's  sake"  (Gen.  viii.  20,  21). 

In  numbers  of  cases  God  appears  in  human  or 
in  angel  form.  In  the  great  appearance  of  the  Lord 
to  Abram  (Gen.  xv.),  God  comes  in  dreams  and 
visions  to  make  His  promises  of  inheritance  and  of 
posterity.  But  when  that  promise  to  him  was 
renewed  (Gen.  xviii.),  the  Lord  appeared  in  the 
form  of  three  men,  visible  as  he  sat  in  the  tent  door 
in  the  heat  of  the  day.  And  these  celestial  visitors 
partook  of  the  hospitality  of  Abram  and  entered 
into  conversation,  in  which  the  Lord  declares  to 
Abram  the  coming  destruction  of  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah,  and  Abram  pleads  with  the  destroying 
angel  to  spare  the  cities  of  the  plains.  Two  angels 
come  to  Sodom  and  become  the  guests  of  Lot.  But 
these  angels  were  men  who  could  seize  his  hand 
and  urge  him  forth  from  the  doomed  place.  But 
the  two  men  melt  into  one  Lord  with  whom  Lot 
pleads  that  he  may  go  to  a  little  city,  and  when  Lot 


THE  IDEA   OF   GOD  69 

and  his  daughters  have  escaped  to  Zoar,  this 
curious  thing  happens:  "The  Lord  rained  upon 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah  brimstone  and  fire  from  the 
Lord  out  of  heaven."  No  one  can  read  the  stories, 
if  at  all  rid  of  preconceptions,  without  recognizing 
here  a  divine  duality.  Earlier  still,  in  the  Hagar 
story  (Gen.  xvi),  the  angel  of  the  Lord  finds  the 
woman  by  a  fountain  of  water  in  the  wilderness, 
and  she  understands  that  she  is  speaking  with  God 
for  she  calls  His  name,  "Thou  God  seest  me."  In 
the  strange  case  of  Abraham  oflFering  Isaac,  a  story 
which  seems  to  have  been  told  in  order  to  put  away 
human  sacrifice  out  of  Israel,  the  angel  of  the  Lord 
stops  him  in  the  act  of  sacrificing  his  son  by  calling 
down  to  him  out  of  heaven  (Gen.  xxii.). 

There  seems  no  question  that  the  ordinary  dwell- 
ing place  of  God  was  recognized  in  the  days  of  the 
patriarchs  as  being  in  some  crystal  heaven  above, 
but  that  at  times  the  Lord  graciously  condescended 
to  come  down  among  men.  The  angel  of  the  Lord 
seems  to  have  some  incarnation  or  manifestation 
of  a  visible  presence,  though  even  Abraham  seems 
to  understand  that  there  is  a  permanent  God  of 
heaven  in  addition  to  these  manifestations,  for  the 
Lord  God  of  heaven  promises  him  to  send  His 
angel  before  him  into  the  land.  So  Abraham  recalls 
long  after  (Gen.  xxiv.  4-7). 


70  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

In  the  case  of  Jacob  the  Lord  speaks  down  to 
him  out  of  heaven  from  the  top  of  the  angel-bur- 
dened ladder  and  announces  that  He  is  the  family 
God,  the  Jehovah  God  of  Abraham,  and  of  Isaac, 
and  Jacob  promises  Him  after  waking  from  the 
happy  dream,  ten  per  cent  of  all  the  profit  that  he 
may  make  in  the  foreign  country  if  Jehovah  will 
only  care  for  him  until  he  come  back  again  in 
peace,  and  he  says  significantly  "then  shall  Jehovah 
be  my  God"  (Gen.  xxviii.),  but  who  shall  be  your 
God,  O  Jacob,  if  things  go  wrong  and  you  are  not 
protected  ? 

In  the  story  of  Laban  and  Jacob,  significant  to 
us  in  many  ways,  Laban  acknowledges  that  the 
God  of  Jacob's  clan  has  spoken  the  night  before, 
and  consequently  He  will  do  him  no  harm.  But 
yet  he  demands  that  his  household  gods  which 
Rachel  has  stolen  should  be  returned  (Gen.  xxxi.). 
Jacob  goes  his  way,  the  angels  of  the  Lord  meet 
him  on  the  way,  and  later  the  lonely  Jacob  wrestles 
with  a  man  until  the  breaking  of  the  day,  and  it 
was  not  until  his  thigh  shrank  and  the  morning 
broke  that  the  newly  baptized  Israel,  no  longer  a 
supplanter,  discovered  that  his  struggle  had  been 
with  God  (Gen.  xxxii.). 

Many  tribes  of  men  have  worshiped  the  sun  in 
the  heavens  and  fire  upon  the  earth  as  the  symbol 


THE   IDEA   OF   GOD 


71 


of  the  sun  god.  It  is  not  necessary  to  think  of  the 
men  who  stood  before  altars  upon  mountain  places 
watching  for  the  first  rays  of  the  sun  to  smite  their 
eyes,  as  the  regenerators  of  religion,  nor  to  feel 
assured  on  a  thousand  tokens  in  a  thousand  places 
that  this  great  cult  was  one  of  the  early  manifesta- 
tions of  religion. 

We  turn  away  from  the  appearances  in  bodily 
form  which  characterized  the  period  of  the  patri- 
archs to  the  opening  of  the  career  of  Moses  when 
he  came  to  Horeb,  called  significantly  "the  moun- 
tain of  God,"  to  indicate  that  it  was  the  very  local 
dwelling-place  and  chief  seat  on  earth  of  this 
sovereign  Lord.  There  the  angel  of  the  Lord 
appeared  in  the  flame  of  fire.  Though  the  bush 
burned,  it  was  not  consumed,  and  the  voice  of  God 
spoke  to  him  out  of  the  midst  of  the  flame  and 
proclaimed  himself  the  God  of  the  early  clans,  of 
Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob.  Then  Moses  hid 
his  face  and  God  declared  to  him  there  the  special 
name  Jehovah,  the  Ever  Living  One,  by  which  He 
would  be  known  hereafter  (Ex.  lii.).  Not  only 
did  Jehovah  appear  here  as  a  fire  god,  but  long 
afterwards  the  night  was  illumined  for  the  camps 
of  Israel,  not  alone  by  fires  of  their  own  making, 
but  by  that  mysterious  pillar  of  fire,  token  of  the 
divine  presence.     In  the  calamity  which  was  de- 


72  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

scribed  as  overtaking  the  men  who  offered  strange 
incense  before  the  Lord,  it  was  denied  to  Korah, 
Dathan  and  Abiram  to  die  the  common  death.  Not 
only  did  the  earth  open  and  swallow  them  up,  but 
a  fire  came  down  from  the  Lord  and  consumed  two 
hundred  and  fifty  men  (Num.  xvi.)-  It  became 
a  tradition  in  Israel,  and  long  after  Isaiah  him- 
self continued  the  symbol  ''and  the  light  of  Israel 
shall  be  for  a  fire  and  His  Holy  One  for  a  flame." 
The  author  of  the  Second  Law  declares  *'The 
Lord  Thy  God  is  a  consuming  fire."  And  once 
more,  "Understand,  therefore,  this  day  that  the 
Lord  thy  God  is  He  which  goeth  before  thee  as 
a  consuming  fire  who  shall  destroy  thee  and  shall 
bring  thee  down  before  thy  face"  (Deut.  iv.  24, 
ix.  3). 

No  wonder  that  this  fiery  symbol  became  a  tra- 
dition in  Israel,  for  in  the  solemn  memory  of  the 
giving  of  the  Law  the  account  is  "And  Mt.  Sinai 
was  altogether  on  a  smoke  because  the  Lord  de- 
scended upon  it  in  fire  and  the  smoke  thereof 
ascended  as  the  smoke  of  a  furnace ;  and  the  whole 
mountain  quaked  greatly ;  and  the  sight  of  the  glory 
of  the  Lord  was  like  devouring  fire  on  the  top  of 
the  mountain  in  the  eyes  of  the  children  of  Israel 
(Ex.  xix.  18,  xxiv.  17).  The  author  of  Deu- 
teronomy puts  upon  the  lips  of  Moses  a  strong 


THE   IDEA   OF   GOD  73 

warning  that  fire  and  nothing  else  is  to  remain  the 
symbol  of  God,  for  in  recalling  to  their  memory 
what  had  passed  at  Mt.  Sinai,  he  says,  "And  the 
Lord  spake  unto  you  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire; 
ye  heard  the  voices  of  the  words  but  saw  no  simili- 
tude; only  ye  heard  the  voice;  Take  ye  therefore 
good  heed  unto  yourselves,  for  ye  saw  no  manner  of 
similitude  on  the  day  that  the  Lord  spake  unto  you 
in  word,  for  then  it  was  that  he  proclaimed 
^Jehovah  by  name/  "  In  spite  of  fire  and  earth- 
quake, mountain  storm  of  flame  and  smoke,  and  all 
the  lofty  words  of  the  sternly  spoken  law,  this  is 
He,  "Jehovah  Jehovah,  a  God  merciful  and  gracious, 
slow  to  anger  and  abundant  in  lovingklndness  and 
truth,  keeping  lovingkindness  for  thousands,  for- 
getting iniquity  and  transgression  and  sin."  Yet 
is  Jehovah  a  jealous  God  and  yet  idolatry  is  the 
iniquity  of  the  fathers  which  is  to  be  visited  upon 
the  children  unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation. 
Jehovah  is  the  Name.  It  is  not  to  be  used  for 
vanity,  and  it  is  Jehovah  who  demands  one  day  in 
seven  for  His  service. 

In  all  the  stories  and  symbolisms  we  see  the 
working  of  a  practical  monotheism  in  making  the 
beginnings  of  a  nation.  This  was  in  the  wilderness 
as  it  was  to  be  generations  after,  the  great  uniting 
force  that  bound  together  the  nation  and  that  pre- 


74  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

served  the  people  when  in  the  tide  of  years  it  was 
scattered  abroad  over  the  face  of  the  earth. 

This  man  Moses  is  revealed  to  us  clearly  across 
the  generations.  However  we  may  take  from  him, 
and  perhaps  rightly,  many  of  the  statutes  called  by 
his  name,  however  much  we  may  be  inclined  to 
suppose  that  many  of  the  words  placed  in  the  record 
upon  his  lips  were  later  voices  in  Hebrew  history, 
yet  more  than  ever  as  we  go  forward  in  our  study 
will  it  appear  that  there  is  a  permanent  and  irredu- 
cible tradition  which  places  him  among  the  greatest 
men  of  history.  As  Mahomet  some  two  thousand 
years  after  gathered  other  Semitic  tribes  and  taught 
them  that  the  Lord  is  one  God,  so  the  greater 
Moses  under  greater  difficulties  laid  the  foundations 
of  the  state  in  spite  of  the  current  idolatry  of  the 
people  as  shown  again  and  again  through  the  his- 
tory, upon  the  rock  of  one  God,  their  Deliverer, 
Lawgiver,  Providence,  and  Judge.  Nor  does  it 
afifect  the  historicity  of  his  work  to  suppose  that 
after  he  was  dead,  the  people  failed  to  live  up  to  his 
high  levels,  to  remember  his  revelations,  and  to 
practise  his  requirements.  Of  that  further  evolu- 
tion of  the  divine  idea  we  have  yet  to  speak.  The 
Book  of  Psalms  is  the  great  hymnbook  of  the  ages, 
and  includes  lyrics  of  such  difference  of  content 
and  purpose  that  they  must  be  referred  to  almost 


THE   IDEA   OF   GOD 


75 


the  entire  range  of  Hebrew  history.  There  is  one 
of  the  psalms,  perhaps  an  ancient  fragment,  which 
seems  to  sum  up  the  divine  idea  of  the  wilderness 
period  as  the  Jehovah  of  Moses : 

The  cords  of  Sheol  were  round  about  me; 

The  snares  of  death  came  upon  me. 

In    my   distress    I    called   upon   Jehovah, 

And   cried   unto   my   God: 

He  heard  my  voice  out  of  his  temple, 

And  my  cry  before  him  came  into  his  ears. 

Then   the    earth    shook    and   trembled; 

The   foundations   of  the  mountain   quaked 

And  were  shaken  because  he  was  wroth. 

There  went  up  a  smoke  out  of  his  nostrils, 

And  fire  out  of  his  mouth  devoured: 

Coals  were  kindled  by  it. 

He   bowed  the  heavens   also,    And   came    down; 

And  thick  darkness  was   under  his   feet; 

And  he  rode  upon  a  cherub,  And  did  fly 

Yea,  he  soared  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind. 

He  made  darkness   his   hiding   place,    his   pavilion  round 

about   him, 
Darkness  of  waters,   thick   clouds   of  the  skies. 
At    the    brightness    before    him    his    thick   clouds    passed. 
Hailstones  and  coals   of  fire. 
Jehovah   also   thundered   in  the   heavens 
And  the  Most  High  uttered  his  voice 
Hailstones  and  coals  of  fire. 

And  he   sent  out  his   arrows,   and  scattered  them.; 
Yea,  lightnings  manifold,  and  discomfited  them. 
Then  the   channels   of  waters  appeared, 
And  the  foundations  of  the  world  were  laid  bare, 
At  thy  rebuke,  O  Jehovah 
At  the  blast  of  the  breath  of  thy  nostrils. 
He  sent  from  on  high,  he  took  me; 
He  drew  me  out  of  many  waters. 


^6  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

The  transactions  of  Joshua,  so  far  as  the  con- 
quest is  concerned,  are  fully  set  forth.  But  as 
Joshua  was  only  a  lesser  Moses,  so  there  is  no  con- 
tribution of  particular  moment  to  his  idea  of  Gk)d. 
Jehovah  is  certainly  still  a  man  of  war,  and  all  the 
enemies  whom  they  met  in  the  promised  land  were 
conquered  by  a  series  of  astounding  victories.  The 
account  is  given  of  the  division  of  the  land,  and 
the  days  come  for  Joshua  to  relinquish  his  power, 
and  in  his  farewell  message  he  bids  the  people 
believe  that  he,  their  warrior  king,  was  as  nothing, 
for  "Ye  have  seen  all  that  Jehovah  your  God  hath 
done  unto  all  these  nations  because  of  you,  for 
Jehovah  your  God  he  it  is  that  hath  fought  for  you. 
He  hath  driven  out  before  you  great  nations  and 
strong.  One  man  of  you  shall  chase  a  thousand  for 
Jehovah,  your  God,  he  it  is  that  fighteth  for  you  as 
he  spake  unto  you.  Not  one  thing  hath  failed  of 
all  the  good  things  which  Jehovah  your  God  spake 
concerning  you"  (Josh,  xxiii.). 

There  had  been  idolatries  among  their  fathers* 
Beyond  the  River  the  ancestors  of  Abraham  had 
served  other  gods,  so  likewise  Moses  had  found 
them  serving  the  gods  of  Egypt,  but  Jehovah  was 
the  God  of  Israel  and  they  must  be  true  to  their 
faith  with  Him  or  the  anger  of  Jehovah  would  be 
kindled  against  them. 


THE   IDEA   OF   GOD  'jy 

It  is  evident  that  many  changes  must  take  place 
in  the  idea  of  God  and  in  the  working  of  that  idea 
when  these  people  are  settled  in  the  land  of 
Canaan.  Whether  the  account  of  the  origin  of  the 
nation  be  accepted  in  all  the  fulness  of  its  detail, 
or  whether  the  critical  idea  of  a  rallying  point  In 
the  Negeb  with  the  slow  progress  into  the  promised 
land  be  accepted,  the  ritual  of  religion,  as  well  as 
the  conceptions  which  lay  at  the  foundations  of 
religious  observance,  must  undergo  a  powerful 
modification.  The  free  worship  of  clans  with  rever- 
ence for  their  own  deity  must  give  way  before  the 
god  of  a  nation  as  the  tribes  slowly  weld  into  one 
people  and  the  beginnings  of  organized  govern- 
ment arise. 

The  relation  of  Jehovah  to  the  land  which  His 
people  inhabit  is  one  of  the  things  which  meets  us 
at  the  outset.  The  tribes  of  Reuben  and  of  Gad 
and  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh  were  to  live  east  of 
the  Jordan  and  the  record  is  "They  built  there  an 
altar  by  the  Jordan,  a  great  altar  to  look  upon." 
This  altar  was  a  subject  of  much  controversy, 
(Josh,  xxii.)  and  the  explanation  is  of  particular 
moment.  The  trans-Jordanic  tribes  declare  that 
this  altar  is  not  built  for  burnt-ofifering  or  any 
sacrifice,  but  rather  as  a  great  altar  of  witness.  It 
was  a  witness  for  their  inheritance  in  the  rule  of 


78  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

Israel.  It  is  a  monument  to  be  appealed  to  in  all 
the  future.  '*In  time  to  come  your  children  might 
speak  unto  our  children  saying,  What  have  ye  to 
do  with  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  for  Jehovah 
hath  made  the  Jordan  a  border  between  us  and 
you,  ye  children  of  Reuben  and  children  of  Gad. 
Ye  have  no  fortune  In  Jehovah.  So  might  your 
children  make  our  children  cease  from  fearing 
Jehovah."  That  the  question  of  the  limitation  of 
the  domain  of  Jehovah  was  a  possible  question  is 
highly  illuminating.  It  will  be  necessary  to  take 
note  of  this  in  a  later  connection. 

A  new  era  opens  for  Israel  and  for  the  student 
with  the  Book  of  Judges.  The  incoherent  tribes, 
the  powerful  enemies,  the  hero  stories,  and  the 
special  deliverances,  the  occasional  interventions  in 
behalf  of  his  people,  are  of  the  utmost  interest  in 
showing  the  formative  period  both  of  religion  and 
of  politics.  The  development  of  the  hero  Into  the 
function  of  the  judge,  the  prophet  as  king-maker, 
and  the  history  of  the  development  of  sacrifice  to 
the  growth  of  ritual,  Is  all  before  our  eyes.  Jehovah 
appears  to  the  people  at  Bochim  In  the  form  of  an 
angel  as  he  had  done  to  their  early  forefathers. 
It  Is  discovered  to  us  In  the  first  chapter  of 
Judges  that  the  destruction  of  the  Canaanltes  was 
by  no  means  so  complete  as  the  account  of  the  vie- 


THE  IDEA   OF   GOD  79 

tories  of  Joshua  had  led  us  to  suppose.  And  there 
were  two  explanations  of  the  fact.  The  first  ex- 
planation is  religious,  for  the  angel  of  Jehovah  says, 
"1  made  ye  to  go  up  out  of  Egypt  and  I  said  I  will 
never  break  my  covenant  with  the  inhabitants  of 
this  land.  I  shall  break  down  their  altars.  But  ye 
have  not  hearkened  unto  my  voice.  Wherefore  I 
also  said  I  will  not  drive  them  out  from  before  you 
but  they  shall  be  as  thorns  in  your  sides  and  their 
gods  shall  be  a  snare  unto  you."  And  so  It  was 
that  so  soon  as  the  children  of  Israel  were  fairly 
in  the  promised  land,  they  forsook  the  God  of  their 
fathers  and  began  to  serve  the  Baalim,  the  settled 
gods  of  the  land  which  they  had  come  to  inherit. 
And  this  struggle  of  the  national  religion  with  the 
religion  of  the  land  seems  to  have  continued  until 
Jehovah  absorbed  all  the  authority  of  the  Baalim, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  ritual  of  Israel  seems 
to  have  been  enriched  by  the  local  festivities  of 
their  Semitic  kinsmen.  But  in  the  third  chapter  of 
Judges  the  political  motive  for  the  survival  of  the 
Canaanltes  is  set  forth.  "These  are  the  nations 
which  Jehovah  left  to  prove  Israel  by  them  even  as 
many  of  Israel  as  had  not  known  all  the  wars  of 
Canaan.  Only  that  the  generations  of  the  children 
of  Israel  might  know  to  teach  them  war  at  the  least 
such  as  beforetime  knew  nothing  thereof.*'     And 


8o  RELIGION   IN    THE    MAKING 

so  the  children  of  Israel  dwelt  among  the  former 
inhabitants  of  the  land,  intermarried  with  them, 
shared  their  manners  and  customs  and  became 
obedient  to  their  forms  of  religion  (Judges  iii.  i-6). 

But  Jehovah  was  still  in  the  land  and  in  the  Song 
of  Deborah,  that  "mother  in  Israel,"  we  are  called 
again  to  witness  the  glory  of  Jehovah,  the  God  of 
Israel.  Once  more  He  is  upon  the  war-march; 
once  more  He  is  the  Lawgiver,  and  the  mountains 
quake  at  the  presence  of  Jehovah.  He  is  not  always 
here  but  when  He  comes  the  mountains  do  quake, 
even  Sinai,  the  special  place  for  His  appearance 
upon  the  earth. 

As  domestic  as  His  appearance  to  Abraham  is 
His  coming  to  Gideon  when  the  angel  of  the  Lord 
appears  once  again  face  to  face  and  uses  the  staff 
in  His  hand  to  give  the  touch  of  fire  to  the  sacrifice 
which  has  been  prepared.  This  heartens  him  to 
throw  down  the  altar  of  Baal  and  to  build  an  altar 
unto  Jehovah.  The  history  of  Samson  has  for  its 
prophecy  the  appearance  of  an  angel  of  Jehovah 
bringing  the  promise  of  a  son,  and  here  we  have 
the  union  of  the  angel  of  the  covenant  with  the  fire 
god  of  later  times,  for  it  came  to  pass  when  IManoah 
offered  sacrifice  as  the  flame  went  up  toward  heaven 
the  angel  ascended  in  the  flame.  Much  more  gentle 
and  less  dramatic  was  the  coming  of  Jehovah  to 


THE   IDEA   OF   GOD  8l 

Hannah,  the  mother  of  Samuel,  the  great  founder 
of  the  Hebrew  commonwealth. 

Special  significance  attaches  to  hills  and  moun- 
tains with  respect  to  the  idea  of  God.  Altars  are 
built  on  hills,  and  when  later  a  central  shrine  was 
established,  it  was  the  rival  high  places  always  that 
must  be  broken  down.  Moses  with  Aaron  and  Hur 
were  on  the  top  of  a  hill  to  obtain  a  blessing  of  the 
Lord  in  time  of  battle,  and  Joshua  smites  all  the 
country  of  the  hills  and  of  the  south.  The  con- 
quest of  Jerusalem  was  significant,  not  alone  for 
its  use  as  a  stronghold,  but  because  the  glory  of  its 
hills  was  a  symbol  of  divine  strength.  One  of  the 
Psalmists  sings,  "Who  shall  dwell  in  thy  holy 
hill,"  and  again,  "I  will  lift  up  mine  eyes  unto  the 
hills  from  whence  my  help  cometh,"  and  still  an- 
other psalm  declares,  "the  strength  of  the  hills  is 
his  also."  This  identification  of  Jehovah  with  the 
high  places  was  not  confined  to  the  fact  that  at 
Sinai  there  came  forth  the  law,  for  in  the  conquest 
we  read,  "And  the  Lord  was  with  Judah  and  he 
drave  out  the  Inhabitants  of  the  mountains  but 
could  not  drive  out  the  Inhabitants  of  the  valley 
because  they  had  chariots  of  Iron"  (Judges  i.  19), 
and  It  Is  no  explanation  to  say  that  It  was  Judah 
who  could  not  drive  out  the  Inhabitants  of  the 
valleys  rather  than  the  Lord,  for  why  would  not 
6 


S2  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

Jehovah    come    down    also   unto    the    valley    with 
Judah? 

This  tradition  was  one  accepted  not  only  by  the 
writer  of  Judges  but  seems  to  have  spread  abroad 
beyond  the  confines  of  Israel.  In  the  days  of  the 
great  Ahab,  king  of  Israel,  the  servants  of  the 
invading  king  of  Syria  declared  in  comfort  of  his 
defeat,  'Their  god  is  a  god  of  the  hills,  therefore 
they  are  stronger  than  we,  but  let  us  fight  against 
them  in  the  plain  and  surely  we  shall  be  stronger 
than  they."  The  next  year  Ben  Hadad  gathered 
his  hosts  and  returned  to  fight  against  Israel,  and 
now  came  the  time  to  wipe  out  the  reproach  which 
had  existed  for  generations.  The  tradition  was 
helped  by  the  fact  that  the  Philistines  and  the 
Phoenicians  occupied  the  plains  along  the  sea,  and 
that  where  the  north  stretched  toward  the  great 
desert  made  beautiful  by  the  rivers  of  Damascus, 
other  princes  ruled.  But  in  the  time  of  the  new 
invasion  "a  man  of  God  came  near  and  spoke  unto 
the  king  of  Israel  and  said  thus  saith  Jehovah,  Be- 
cause the  Syrians  have  said  Jehovah  is  a  God  of 
the  hills  but  he  is  not  a  God  of  the  valleys,  there- 
fore will  I  deliver  all  of  this  great  multitude  into 
thy  hand  and  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  Jehovah." 
A  great  slaughter  of  the  Syrians  followed  and 
never  again  in  Israel  or  elsewhere  will  the  proverb 


THE   IDEA   OF   GOD  g^ 

be  heard,  ''Jehovah  is  a  God  of  the  hills  and  is  not 
a  God  of  the  plains." 

It  is  probable  that  inasmuch  as  Baal  was  recog- 
nized as  the  god  of  cultivated  land,  giver  of  the 
bounty  of  the  fields  whose  symbol  is  the  sun,  this 
god  of  the  Canaanites  appealed  to  the  imagination 
of  the  people  of  Israel.  The  traditions  of  Israel 
turned  toward  the  wilderness.  It  was  there 
Jehovah  had  wrought  for  them  His  mighty  won- 
ders and  even  the  great  Elijah  when  he  wished  to 
be  alone  with  God  arose  and  like  Moses  spent  forty 
days  and  forty  nights  in  Horeb,  the  mount  of  God. 

The  special  significance  of  the  land  as  related  to 
its  god  is  well  indicated  by  the  case  of  Naaman,  for 
after  he  had  been  healed  of  Elisha  and  was  to  return 
to  Damascus  he  was  not  able  to  serve  Jehovah  on 
foreign  soil,  and  so  he  asks  to  be  permitted  to  carry 
away  the  soil  of  Israel  that  he  might  have  where- 
with to  offer  sacrifice.  "And  Namaan  said,  Shall 
there  not  then,  I  pray  thee,  be  given  to  thy  servant 
two  mules'  burden  of  earth,  for  thy  servant  will 
henceforth  offer  neither  burnt-offering  nor  sacri- 
fice unto  other  gods  but  unto  Jehovah.'"  As  in 
the  political  fiction  if  the  flag  of  a  nation  floats  over 
a  ship  on  the  sea  or  over  the  ambassador's  house  in 
a  foreign  land  there  it  carries  the  nation's  sover- 
eignty, so  this  removal  of  earth  might  carry  the 


84  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

sovereignty  of  Jehovah  even  to  the  shadow  of  the 
house  of  Rimmon. 

David  v^as  a  true  servant  of  Jehovah.  Black 
sins  he  committed,  no  doubt,  but  among  them  was 
not  the  sin  of  idolatry.  Like  Abraham  and  Moses 
he  expected  a  permanent  nation  which  God  should 
establish  for  Himself  to  be  His  people  forever. 
As  Jehovah  had  chosen  Israel  for  His  people,  so 
He  had  chosen  David  for  their  king,  and  as  the 
kingdom  was  to  last  forever,  so  were  his  house 
and  throne.  Only  once  in  the  administration  of 
his  kingdom  did  David  sin  against  Jehovah,  and  the 
dark  story  states,  "the  anger  of  the  Lord  was 
kindled  against  Israel  and  he  moved  David  against 
them  saying.  Go  number  Israel  and  Judah" 
(2  Sam.  xxiv.  i).  The  answer  to  this  sin  of 
David  was  a  pestilence  of  three  days  and  a  destroy- 
ing angel  sent  forth  to  smite  the  people.  Just 
where  the  sin  was  in  numbering  Israel  the  record 
does  not  well  inform  us,  nor  are  we  helped  by  the 
account  of  the  later  writer  who  declares,  "And 
Satan  stood  up  against  Israel  and  moved  David  to 
number  Israel'*  ( i  Chron.  xxi.  i ) .  The  only  thing 
that  stands  out  clearly  is  the  fact  that  David  pre- 
ferred pestilence  to  either  famine  or  destructive 
war  and  he  declares  to  the  prophet  Gad,  "Let  us 
fall  now  into  the  hand  of  Jehovah,  for  his  mercies 


THE   IDEA   OF   GOD  85 

are  great,  and  let  me  not  fall  into  the  hand  of 
man"  (2  Sam.  xxiv.  14).  Solomon  the  son  and 
successor  of  David,  not  only  reared  a  temple  to 
Jehovah  which  stood  as  a  chapel  royal  to  his  own 
palace,  but  he  also  crowded  the  surrounding  spaces 
with  altars  to  various  divinities  until  the  temple  hill 
had  as  many  shrines  as  the  Acropolis  of  Athens. 

The  stories  of  the  kings  of  Israel  and  Judah  with 
the  practical  contest  ever  going  forward  between 
the  lonely  and  jealous  Jehovah  upon  the  one  side 
and  the  various  forms  of  foreign  worship  upon  the 
other,  has  one  dramatic  and  splendid  period  when 
that  stern  monotheist,  Elijah,  enters  into  the 
struggle  with  Ahab  and  the  priests  of  Baal.  The 
victory  that  he  won  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  who 
once  again  as  in  the  days  of  Moses  answered  by 
fire,  has  gathered  to  it  many  wonder  stories,  but  it 
has  also  remained  a  monumental  fact  in  the  history 
and  experience  of  Israel.  As  Moses  was  the  great- 
est of  the  lawgivers,  so  Elijah  became  the  greatest 
of  the  prophets.  He  wrote  no  book.  There  are 
left  to  us  very  few  of  his  spoken  words,  but  his 
figure  stands  out  with  greater  clearness  than  that 
of  any  other  hero  in  all  the  history. 

We  have  briefly  followed  the  course  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  idea  of  God  and  it  seems  evident  that  it 
runs    parallel    with    the    social    history    of    Israel. 


S6  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

Jehovah  is  a  family  God,  a  clan  God,  a  tribal  God, 
and  a  national  God  as  the  social  group  changes 
and  enlarges.  He  becomes  at  last  the  universal 
God  in  the  religious  climax  of  the  Hebrew  life.  It 
began  with  an  almost  universal  polytheism  in  which 
it  is  well  recognized  that  other  peoples  have  their 
own  gods  who  confer  benefits  upon  them,  as  Jepthah 
in  his  controversy  with  the  king  of  Ammon  says, 
"Wilt  thou  not  possess  that  which  Chemosh  thy  god 
giveth  thee  to  possess  so  whomsoever  Jehovah  our 
God  hath  dispossessed  from  before  us,  them  will 
he  possess"  (Judges  xi.  24). 

But  Ragnarok,  the  twilight  of  the  gods,  was  to 
fall  upon  all  the  deities  of  Canaan.  The  victory  of 
Jehovah  was  to  become  universal,  and  it  is  sig- 
nificant that  this  view  comes  to  its  throne  when  the 
war  powers  struggle  for  Israel,  when  its  doom  is 
forecast  and  when  out  of  the  struggle  there  arises 
upon  the  consciousness  of  Israel  for  the  first  time 
among  men  the  conception  of  a  universal  philosophy 
of  history.  That  philosophy  is  based  upon  religion 
and  the  roll-call  of  the  nations  is  made  that  the 
doom  of  them  all  may  be  pronounced.  Thus  does 
vision  conquer  fact  in  the  days  which  waited  for 
the  destruction  of  the  visible  throne  of  David. 

The  Book  of  Deuteronomy  contains  the  great 
law,   "Hear,   O   Israel,   Jehovah   our  God   is  one 


THE   IDEA   OF   GOD  87 

Jehovah,  and  thou  shalt  love  Jehovah,  thy  God,  with 
all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy 
mind."  Whatever  be  the  truth  of  the  date  and 
authorship  of  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  there  is 
no  question  at  all  that  it  did  not  exist  as  an  early 
law  for  the  Hebrew  people.  It  did  not  exist  as  a 
law  during  all  the  period  of  the  making  of  the 
nation  and  the  earlier  part  of  the  monarchy.  As  a 
historic  influence  it  belongs  to  the  times  of  the 
prophets.  But  it  is  of  the  historic  unfolding  of  the 
idea  with  which  we  have  to  do  and  not  merely  its 
literary  conception.  The  thought  of  God  contained 
in  Deuteronomy,  in  the  Book  of  Job,  and  in  many 
of  the  Psalms,  finds  its  full  unfolding  in  the 
prophets.  Beyond  the  majesty  of  the  prophets  the 
human  mind  has  never  gone,  and  with  them  the 
permanent  message  of  Israel  to  humanity  is  finally 
expressed.  The  history  of  Israel  really  ended  with 
the  great  voices  that  spoke  out  of  the  captivity  by 
the  rivers  of  Babylon.  What  follows  after  must  be 
sketched  in  order  to  show  political  and  ecclesiastical 
forms,  but  the  great  anguish  of  the  human  soul 
was  in  the  struggle  to  find  his  God  and  having 
found  Him  he  knew  at  once  "The  Lord  our  God  is 
one  God."  He  is  everywhere  present.  "O  Lord, 
thou  hast  searched  me  and  known  me;  thou  know- 


88  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

est  my  downsitting  and  uprising;  thou  under- 
standest  my  thought  forever"   (Psa.  cxxxix.  2). 

This  omnipresent  God  has  no  rival.  The  ancient 
deities  are  dead.  'Thus  saith  Jehovah,  king  and 
redeemer  of  Israel,  Jehovah  of  Hosts.  I  am  the 
first  and  I  am  the  last,  and  beside  me  there  is  no 
God"  (Isa.  xliv.  6).  This  God  is  as  strong  as  He 
is  universal.  ''Ah  Lord  Jehovah,  behold,  thou  hast 
made  the  heavens  and  the  earth  by  thy  great 
power  and  by  thy  outstretched  arm.  There  is 
nothing  too  hard  for  thee,  the  great  and  almighty 
God ;  Jehovah  of  Hosts  is  his  name,  great  in  council 
and  mighty  in  work,  whose  eyes  are  upon  all  the 
ways  of  the  sons  of  men"  (Jer.  xxxii.  17-19). 

Not  alone  is  Jehovah  enthroned  but  He  also  has 
a  law.  He  himself  is  righteous  in  all  His  ways  and 
holy  in  all  His  works.  The  whole  earth  is  full  of 
His  glory  because  men  when  they  praise  Him  may 
cry,  "Holy,  Holy,  Holy,  is  the  Lord  of  Hosts!" 
but  Jehovah  is  as  compassionate  as  He  is  great  and 
holy  and  righteous.  If  the  wicked  will  forsake 
their  evil  ways  and  evil  thoughts  by  repentance,  they 
may  find  life.  The  heavenly  throne  increased  in 
splendor  as  the  glory  of  the  earthly  throne  grew 
dim.  This  universal  and  triumphant  Lord  quick- 
ened in  the  souls  of  His  servants  the  psalm  of  an 
unquenchable  hope.     He  shared  in  the  sorrows  of 


THE   IDEA   OF   GOD  89 

His  people.  He  would  level  the  mountains,  lift  up 
the  valleys,  and  make  the  wilderness  blossom  as  a 
garden.  Through  all  the  painful  centuries  men 
had  been  groping  their  way.  They  had  worked 
with  such  fragments  of  the  divine  idea  as  they 
could  find  and  use.  They  had  built  altars.  They 
had  painfully  constructed  rituals,  but  at  length  they 
had  ended  all  the  weary  journey  and  from  the 
summit  of  their  painful  way  they  had  caught  the 
vision  of  the  everlasting  truth  and  beauty,  and 
they  spoke  their  discovery  to  the  souls  of  men  in 
living  words  that  can  never  perish. 


CHAPTER  VII 
SACRED   PERSONS 

THE    MAKING   OF  THE   PRIEST 

The  ideas  of  God,  of  Providence,  of  Immortal- 
ity, are  fundamental  to  religion.  The  idea  of  duty 
in  its  modern  sense  is  a  later  addition,  but  some 
form  of  the  idea  of  duty  to  God  is  as  primitive  as 
the  thought  of  God  itself.  Different  peoples  differ 
in  the  order  and  in  the  insistence  of  these  ideas. 
With  the  Hebrews  on  the  whole,  the  idea  of  God 
was  the  strongest  factor  in  the  making  of  their 
institutions.  Where  ancestor  worship  is  the  chief 
cult  of  the  people  the  idea  of  immortality  is  the 
most  important.  India  and  China,  each  in  its  own 
way,  have  laid  emphasis  upon  conduct.  The  idea 
of  Providence  has  its  dark  as  well  as  its  bright  side, 
and  these  are  both  reflected  in  forms  of  worship. 
The  early  gods  are  whimsical  and  passion-driven. 
The  old  Greek  poets  thought  they  could  not  be 
depended  upon  nor  their  actions  predicted.  They 
were  also  set  free  from  the  usual  moral  limitations 
that  belong  to  men.  Perhaps  the  greatest  practical 
gain  to  the  religious  convictions  of  the  world  is  that 

90 


SACRED    PERSONS  91 

given  to  us  by  the  later  Hebrews  when  they  disclose 
a  God  who  Himself  lives  by  law  and  reigns  in 
righteousness.  The  institutions  of  worship  have 
their  development  and  are  efforts  to  embody  in 
visible  forms  the  great  ideas  which  furnish  the 
basis  of  religion. 

The  development  of  associate  human  life  marks 
the  distinct  unfolding  of  particular  institutions.  It 
is  by  no  means  true  that  all  civilizations  begin  as 
the  Hebrew  with  a  patriarchial  age.  That  required 
a  pastoral  people.  But  in  the  early  social  group 
there  are  no  such  distinct  institutions  as  family, 
church,  and  state.  The  relation  of  church  and  state 
is  not  so  much  one  of  conscious  union  as  it  is  that 
the  two  functions  are  performed  by  one  form  of 
organization.  This  appears  in  highly  developed 
civilizations  as  among  the  Egyptians,  and,  to  a 
large  extent,  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  The 
supremacy  of  the  church  in  ancient  Egypt  is  seen, 
where  the  king  could  only  be  crowned  after  having 
become  a  priest.  The  sacred  and  secular  duties 
were  two  sides  of  one  office.  When  a  social  group 
comes  to  have  a  definite  order,  so  far  at  least  as  to 
have  one  man  at  its  head,  in  the  earlier  times 
domestic,  religious,  and  political  functions  are  per- 
formed by  the  chief.  Leadership  of  the  horde  or 
clan  fell  to  the  man  who  was  strongest  or  bravest. 


92  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

but  in  the  beginning  his  duties  were  not  regular  or 
defined.  It  was  the  crisis  of  danger  that  brought 
him  to  the  front.  Because  he  could  fight  he  was 
also  permitted  to  rule.  At  a  time  when  only  the 
animal  wants  were  insistent  and  the  ability  to  satisfy 
them  was  small,  the  physical  life  was  the  chief 
object  of  interest.  It  was  impossible  for  crude  and 
undeveloped  men  without  organized  industries, 
dependent  at  first  upon  hunting  and  fishing,  and 
the  native  fruits  of  the  earth,  to  live  in  large  com- 
panies. The  smallness  of  the  early  social  group  pre- 
vented anything  like  full  organization,  just  as  much 
as  the  lack  of  capacity  made  men  unfit  for  varied 
duties.  All  of  the  higher  development  of  a  people, 
as  well  as  the  enlargement  of  the  size  of  the  social 
group,  needed  the  foundation  of  material  success, 
and  first  of  all  was  the  importance  of  a  surplus  food 
supply.  The  beginnings  of  agriculture  are  the 
beginnings  of  a  possible  civilization. 

The  head  of  the  clan,  or  tribe,  is  at  once  soldier, 
law  giver,  judge  and  priest;  as  the  functions  are  all 
found  in  one  person,  so  the  exercise  of  them  has  no 
rule  except  that  of  certain  customs,  growing  w^ith 
time,  which  are  handed  down  from  generation  to 
generation.  When  prosperity  increases,  the  group 
enlarges,  the  ofiiclal  functions  become  more  varied, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  more  definite.     Early  laws 


SACRED   PERSONS 


93 


are  few  and  unwritten.  Early  religious  ceremonies 
are  simple,  and  neither  the  time  nor  the  method  of 
them  is  well  defined.  The  laws  grew  age  by  age 
in  number  and  exactness.  At  length  they  are  re- 
duced to  writing.  If  a  code  be  found  anywhere 
that  is  full,  explicit,  and  minute,  though  we  find 
nothing  of  its  origin,  we  are  sure  that  it  comes  at  a 
late  period  in  the  development  of  the  people.  If  a 
ritual  be  full  and  varied,  giving  exact  directions, 
both  as  to  formal  acts  of  worship  and  the  religious 
sanctions  of  the  ordinary  conduct  of  life,  we  know 
that  the  religion  is  old  and  has  gathered  its  defi- 
niteness  through  many  generations.  A  complex 
life  must  always  be  an  orderly  life.  When  the 
king,  the  lawgiver,  the  judge,  the  soldier,  and  the 
priest,  are  different  individuals,  the  functions  of 
each  must  be  accurately  described  that  there  be  no 
clash  of  authority. 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  the  development 
of  institutions  and  the  development  of  authority 
run  on  parallel  lines.  They  cannot  become  definite 
in  function  any  faster  than  they  are  limited  in 
scope.  The  familiar  doctrine  of  the  division  of 
labor,  by  which  each  workman  is  given  a  small  and 
definite  task  that,  at  the  expense  of  variety  of 
activity,  he  may  gain  great  technical  skill,  indicates 
a   universal   law.     Industry   cannot   assume  these 


94 


RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 


definite  divisions  until  it  becomes  developed  and 
enlarged.  The  shoemaker  at  his  bench  used  to 
make  a  shoe.  Now  no  man  makes  a  shoe,  but  only 
a  part  of  one  in  a  great  factory,  but  in  combination 
with  many  other  persons  the  shoe  is  made.  The 
shoemaker  at  his  bench  represents  at  once  the 
largeness  and  the  imperfection  of  authority  in  a 
social  group  exercised  by  one  person.  The  factory 
exhibits  the  order  and  life  of  a  highly  developed 
community. , 

The  development  of  the  priesthood  follows  the 
order  of  the  development  of  all  other  offices  with 
special  functions  in  human  institutions.  The 
functions  are  at  first  vague,  and  may  be  performed 
by  any  suitable  person.  It  cannot  be  too  strongly 
insisted  upon  that  the  primary  phenomena  of  re- 
ligion relate  to  sacred  acts  rather  than  to  sacred 
persons.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  development  of 
the  priesthood  in  Israel  follows  the  order  observed 
in  the  development  of  the  priesthood  elsewhere  just 
as  the  priesthood  universally  follows  the  order  of 
the  development  of  all  official  functions  from 
vagueness  to  definiteness,  from  the  free  volition  of 
the  individual  to  the  authority  of  the  social  group. 

Chronologically  we  should  deal,  therefore,  first 
with  forms  of  worship,  but  it  seems  better  in  the 
logical  order  to  watch  first  the  development  of  the 


SACRED    PERSONS  95 

priesthood.  In  the  account  of  the  origins,  both 
Cain  and  Abel  offered  sacrifices  though  Adam  still 
lived,  and  it  was  the  younger  son  who  was  accepted. 
Sacrifice  was  not  in  the  beginning  confined  to  the 
head  of  the  family.  Jacob  set  up  his  altar  at  Bethel 
and  upon  the  pillar  poured  out  the  oil  of  sacrifice. 
Prayers  and  revelations  were  confined  to  no  sacred 
guild,  but  were  for  those  in  whom  the  need  was. 

The  period  of  Moses  and  Joshua  we  pass  by  in 
order  to  study  the  growth  of  the  institution  in  those 
ages  when  the  nation  was  manifestly  in  process  of 
formation.  And  here  again  it  is  necessary  to 
emphasize  the  attitude  of  this  study  which  is  to 
seek  to  see  things  at  work  and  to  interpret  all  other 
data  by  that  method. 

We  find  in  the  Book  of  Judges  no  organized 
priesthood,  no  developed  ritual,  and  so  far  as  the 
sons  of  Israel  are  concerned,  the  ritual  law,  so  full 
and  complete  in  Leviticus,  did  not  exist.  The 
angel  of  the  Lord  when  he  appeared  to  Gideon  did 
not  stop  to  ask  him  of  what  tribe  he  was,  but  said : 
"Build  an  altar  unto  the  Lord  thy  God  upon  the 
top  of  this  rock  and  take  the  second  bullock  and 
offer  a  burnt  sacrifice"  (Judges  vi.  26).  And 
Gideon  of  the  tribe  of  Manasseh  obeyed  him. 
Manoah  was  not  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  and  held  no 
priestly  office,  but  "the  angel  of  the  Lord  said.  If 


96  RELIGION    IN    THE    MAKING 

thou  wilt  offer  a  burnt-offering  thou  must  offer  it 
unto  the  Lord  ...  so  Manoah  took  a  kid  with  a 
meat-offering  and  offered  it  upon  a  rock  unto  the 
Lord"  (Judges  xiii.  16-19).  There  were  priests  of 
the  Lord  in  Shiloh,  EH  and  his  sons,  and  the  ac- 
count seems  to  indicate  a  regular  order  of  worship, 
but,  at  all  events,  when  David  appears  we  discover 
something  in  Hebrew  history  which  has  occurred 
many  times  elsewhere,  namely,  the  union  of  king 
and  priest  in  one  person.  David  built  an  altar  on 
the  threshing  floor  of  Araunah  at  the  command  of 
Gad  the  prophet,  and  there  he  offered  burnt-offer- 
ings and  peace-offerings.  Now  David  was  of  the 
tribe  of  Judah,  and  if  he  had  lived  in  the  later  ages 
he  would  not  have  been  allowed  to  offer  sacrifices, 
but  that  it  was  permitted  in  those  times  the  narra- 
tive leaves  us  no  doubt,  for  as  the  result  of  these 
sacrifices  "the  Lord  was  entreated  for  the  land  and 
the  plague  was  stayed  in  Israel"  (2  Sam.  xxiv.). 
That  this  service  was  not  by  accident  it  may  be 
noted  that  David  at  the  solemn  time  of  bringing  the 
Ark  to  an  official  position  in  Israel,  not  only  offered 
burnt-offerings,  but  to  make  the  event  even  more 
significant,  he  gave  the  priestly  benediction.  "He 
blest  the  people  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts" 
(2  Sam.  vi.  15-18). 
Solomon,  the  builder  of  the  temple,  continued  the 


SACRED    PERSONS  97 

functions  of  priest  exercised  by  his  father.  After 
his  sacramental  dream  he  came  to  Jerusalem  and 
in  the  solemn  presence  of  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant 
of  the  Lord  "he  offered  up  burnt-offerings  and 
offered  peace-offerings"  (i  Kings  iii.  15).  But  if 
there  was  one  time  more  than  another  when  a 
limited  priesthood  definitely  appointed  would  have 
its  place  and  its  power,  it  was  at  the  solemn  dedica- 
tion of  the  completed  temple.  Here  Solomon  not 
only  presided  over  the  sacrifices  but  offers  the 
memorable  prayer  of  dedication  (i  Kings  viii.  22). 
And  if  it  be  supposed  that  inasmuch  as  the  stately 
temple  was,  in  effect,  a  royal  chapel,  we  might  find 
here  an  explanation  of  the  unique  act  of  royal 
priesthood,  that  thought  is  dissipated  by  the  further 
statement  that  thereafter  regularly  Solomon  minis- 
tered as  a  priest:  "and  three  times  in  a  year  did 
Solomon  offer  burnt-offerings  and  peace-offerings 
upon  the  altar  which  he  built  unto  the  Lord" 
(i  Kings  ix.  25). 

The  dramatic  case  of  Elijah,  prophet  and  not 
priest,  whose  sacrifice  on  Mt.  Carmel  was  accepted 
by  fire  from  heaven,  as  well  as  the  humbler  account 
of  Ahaz,  making  offerings  upon  his  return  from 
Damascus,  show  how  extended  in  time  was  this 
freedom  of  priestly  service. 

This  doctrine  of  the  general  priesthood  of  the 

7 


98  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

people  seems  to  have  been  confirmed  by  an  early- 
statute  prescribing  a  method  of  service  for  use  by 
the  people  generally :  "An  altar  of  earth  thou  shalt 
make  unto  me  and  shall  sacrifice  thereon  thy  burnt- 
offerings  and  thy  peace-offerings,  thy  sheep  and 
thine  oxen.  In  all  places  where  I  record  my  name 
I  will  come  unto  thee  and  I  will  bless  thee,  and  if 
thou  wilt  make  me  an  altar  of  stone,  thou  shalt  not 
build  it  of  hewn  stone,  for  if  thou  lift  up  thy  tool 
upon  it  thou  hast  polluted  it"  (Ex.  xx.  24-26). 

The  priests  had  the  charge  of  the  sanctuaries 
where  these  existed;  they  consulted  oracles;  they 
conducted  the  services  of  religions.  The  develop- 
ment of  a  particular  order  of  men  in  Israel  to 
whom  was  committed  the  function  of  the  priest- 
hood may  be  traced,  though  not  without  difficulty. 

According  to  the  early  record,  Moses  seems  to 
have  been  the  priest  of  the  tent  of  meeting  in  the 
wilderness  while  Joshua  kept  guard  over  it.  It  was 
Moses  who  pitched  the  tabernacle  without  the  camp, 
and  when  he  went  to  the  tabernacle  every  man 
rose  up  and  stood  in  his  tent  door.  At  the  same 
time,  the  record  seems  to  indicate  that  every  man 
might  go  himself  to  seek  the  Lord  at  this  tabernacle 
outside  the  camp  (Ex.  xxxiii.  7-1 1).  Here  Moses 
seems  not  only  to  have  been  lawgiver  and  judge, 
but  also  priest.     The  union  of  these  functions  in 


SACRED    PERSONS  99 

one  man  is  quite  characteristic  of  primitive  society. 
The   development   of   a   particular  priesthood   is 
recognized  in  the  early  histories.    The  curious  case 
of  Micah  of  Mt.  Ephraim  is  interesting  in  several 
ways.     His  mother  had  dedicated  eleven  hundred 
shekels  of  silver  to  make  a  graven  image  and  a 
molten  image,  and  these  were  to  be  dedicated  unto 
the  Lord  though  He  had  from  the  mount  declared 
"Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  any  graven  image." 
Micah  seems  to  have  had  a  chapel  of  his  own,  and 
to  have   furnished  it  with  the  instruments   of  re- 
ligion.     One   of   his   sons  he   made   a   priest.     A 
young  Levite  came  to  him,  was  adopted  into  the 
family,    supplanted    the    son,    was    consecrated   by 
Micah  himself,   and   became   his  private   chaplain. 
When  in  their  invasion  the  sons  of  Dan  discovered 
the  chapel,  the  images,  and  the  priest,  they  begged 
the  young  Levite  to  go  with  them,  saying:  "Be  to 
us  a  father  and  a  priest.     Is  it  better  for  thee  to 
be  a  priest  unto  the  house  of  one  man  or  that  thou 
be  a  priest  unto  a  tribe  and  a  family  in  Israel?" 
(Judges  xvii.   xviii.).     The  significant  thing  here 
is  the  manifest  revelation  that  the  children  of  Dan 
had  no  priest  and  no  proper  sanctuary.     It  is  very 
evident  from  the  state  of  society  disclosed  through- 
out all  these  early  records  that  there  was  no  well- 
organized  church  with  regular  clergy  and  services, 


100  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

any  more  than  there  was  a  regularly  organized  state 
with  king  and  court.  There  was  a  house  of  the 
Lord  in  Shiloh  in  the  days  of  Samuel,  whither  he 
went  and  where  Eli  and  his  sons  served  as  priests, 
and  all  the  evidence  points  to  the  slow  and  irregu- 
lar evolution  of  the  sacred  office. 

What  then  became  of  the  priesthood  of  Aaron? 
It  is  quite  within  reason  to  suppose  that  Moses 
may  have  handed  over  the  function  of  priest  to 
his  brother,  as  many  another  chieftain  has  done  in 
the  course  of  history.  It  is  possible,  also,  that  even 
at  that  time  the  office  was  promised  to  his  heirs 
and  successors.  We  read  that  Phinehas  the  grand- 
son of  Aaron  turned  away  the  wrath  of  Jehovah 
from  Israel  and  to  him  there  came  this  promise: 
"Behold,  I  give  unto  him  my  covenant  of  peace,  and 
he  shall  have  it  and  his  seed  after  him,  even  the 
covenant  of  an  everlasting  priesthood,  because  he 
was  zealous  for  his  God"  (Num.  xxv.  13).  It  is 
perfectly  certain  that  at  the  time  the  Second  Law 
was  written  not  only  were  the  priests  recognized  as 
belonging  exclusively  to  the  tribe  of  Levi,  but  the 
priests  themselves  seem  as  superior  officers  to  be 
distinguished  from  the  general  body  of  the  Levites. 
There  was  to  be  no  inheritance  for  them  in  Israel, 
but  they  were  to  have  a  share  in  the  fruits  and 
flocks  of  the  other  tribes. 


SACRED   PERSONS  lOI 

In  the  days  of  David  the  house  of  Zadok  came  to 
a  position  of  leadership  which  seems  to  have  re- 
mained to  them  thereafter.  Abiathar  had  been  the 
high  priest.  In  the  time  of  the  conspiracy  of 
Absalom,  Zadok  and  Abiathar  are  named  together 
as  high  priests,  and  here  Zadok's  name  comes  first. 
The  interpretation  of  this  matter  is  found  later, 
when  we  discover  that  Abiathar  intrigued  that  the 
succession  of  the  throne  after  the  death  of  David 
should  descend  to  Adonijah,  while  Zadok  stood 
with  Nathan  the  prophet  in  favor  of  the  succession 
of  Solomon.  We  have  here  an  account  of  a  reli- 
gious intrigue  in  politics  which  makes  it  sound  as 
though  it  might  have  been  in  the  Middle  Ages  at 
any  of  the  courts  of  Europe.  The  family  of  Zadok 
never  lost  this  preeminence,  according  to  Ezekiel, 
who  declares  that  the  sons  of  Zadok  among  the  sons 
of  Levi  are  those  who  come  near  to  the  Lord  to 
minister  unto  him,  and  the  house  of  Zadok  becomes 
thereafter  the  ruling  religious  family.  As  Solomon 
banished  Abiathar,  so  after  the  division  of  the  king- 
dom Jeroboam  made  a  house  of  high  places  for 
Israel,  and  made  priests  of  the  lowest  of  the  people 
who  were  not  of  the  sons  of  Levi. 

The  struggle  between  church  and  state,  priest 
and  king,  is  one  of  the  recurrent  facts  in  human 
history.     Samuel,  representing  religion,  commands 


102  RELIGION   IN   THE    MAKING 

the  throne  in  anointing  Saul  and  afterward  removes 
the  scepter  from  Saul  and  anoints  David.  In  the 
northern  kingdom  religion  in  the  person  of  the 
prophets  sets  up  one  dynasty  and  pulls  down  an- 
other. But  in  the  great  royal  days  of  David  and  of 
Solomon  they  organized  the  functions  of  religion 
and  the  priest  was  subordinate  to  the  king.  After 
the  captivity  the  priest  came  to  the  control  which 
remained  permanent  during  the  life  of  the  nation. 

It  is  not  easy  to  sift  out  the  record  of  the  laws, 
but  it  is  very  evident  what  was  the  course  of  the 
history.  In  early  days  the  head  of  the  family 
offered  the  sacrifice,  identifying  the  father  and  the 
priest.  After  the  development  of  the  tribes  and 
during  the  formation  of  the  nation,  important  men 
of  any  station  might  act  in  the  capacity  of  priest 
at  the  altar  of  sacrifice.  Gradually  the  priestly 
order  is  erected  out  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  and  then 
out  of  a  single  family  of  that  tribe,  for  whose  action 
special  regulations,  full  and  minute,  are  found  in 
the  final  law.  To  the  priests  was  committed  the 
care  of  the  sanctity  of  Israel,  and  under  penalty  of 
death  no  one  might  offer  sacrifice  save  the  priestly 
tribe. 

It  may  be  noted  that  the  function  of  the  priest 
is  not  the  same  throughout  the  history,  and  this 
must  be  briefly  considered.    In  early  time  they  have 


SACRED   PERSONS  103 

to  do  with  oracles,  and  here  the  priest  seems  to 
join  hands  with  the  wise  man  or  the  soothsayer. 
This  function  compares  with  that  of  the  oracle 
among  the  Greeks  and  other  peoples.  Ultimately 
this  passes  away  and  the  priest  becomes  the  minis- 
ter of  a  ritual  and  the  servant  of  an  altar.  The 
Second  Law  enlarges  upon  the  judicial  function 
of  the  priest.  He  not  only  taught  the  law,  but  he 
also  decided  difficult  cases.  "If  there  arise  a  matter 
too  hard  for  thee  in  judgment  between  blood  and 
blood,  then  shalt  thou  arise  and  get  thee  up  unto  the 
place  which  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  choose,  accord- 
ing to  the  sentence  of  the  law  which  they  shall 
teach  thee  and  according  to  the  judgments  which 
they  shall  tell  thee  thou  shalt  do"  (Deut.  xvii.  8-25). 
Many  times  in  the  prophets  were  the  priests  spoken 
of  as  the  lawyers  and  sometimes  as  the  judges  of 
Israel,  and  their  teaching  function  is  expressly  de- 
clared. In  the  final  type  of  the  priestly  code,  how- 
ever, the  judicial  functions  of  the  priest  seem  to 
have  entirely  given  way  and  his  exclusive  offices 
became  to  minister  at  the  altar  and  to  guard  the 
sanctity  of  Israel.  Though  Ezekiel  recognizes  the 
judicial  function  of  the  priesthood,  it  is  only  in 
matters  of  the  canon  and  not  of  the  civil  law 
(Ezek.  xliv.  24). 
Another  function  of  the  priesthood  was  patriotic. 


104  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

He  was  not  expected  to  arm  himself  with  coat  of 
mail  as  many  a  priest  and  bishop  has  done  and  go 
out  to  battle  with  his  own  hands,  but  at  least  he 
must  inspire  and  promise  for  his  people  the  help  of 
Jehovah,  the  God  of  battles.  "When  thou  goest  out 
to  battle  against  thine  enemies  and  seest  horses  and 
chariots  and  a  people  more  than  thou,  be  not  afraid 
of  them,  for  the  Lord  thy  God  is  with  thee  which 
brought  thee  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  it 
shall  be  when  ye  are  come  nigh  unto  the  battle  that 
the  priest  shall  approach  and  speak  unto  the  peo- 
ple and  shall  say  unto  them,  Hear  O  Israel,  ye  ap- 
proach this  day  into  battle  against  your  enemies. 
Let  not  your  hearts  faint,  fear  not  and  do  not 
tremble,  neither  be  ye  terrified  because  of  them  for 
the  Lord  your  God  is  he  that  goeth  with  you  to  fight 
for  you  and  against  your  enemies  to  save  you'* 
(Deut.  XX.  1-6). 

The  final  development  of  the  priesthood,  of 
course,  is  connected  with  the  establishment  of  one 
central  shrine  at  Jerusalem  where  alone  sacrifices 
might  be  offered.  But  this  must  be  left  for  a 
special  discussion  of  sacred  places.  The  history  of 
the  development  of  the  priesthood  in  Israel  com- 
pares with  the  unfolding  of  the  same  office  among 
other  peoples.  The  priestly  function  is  usually  con- 
fined to  the  family  unit  in  the  first  instance,  and 


SACRED   PERSONS  105 

where  there  is  no  established  priesthood  the  family 
worship  propitiates  ancestors,  as  happened  all  the 
way  from  Madagascar  to  India.  When  great 
temples  were  erected  for  national  worship  at  na- 
tional capitals,  the  primitive  worship  to  the  house- 
hold gods  was  still  conducted  by  private  families. 
It  has  been  quite  common  that  the  eldest  male  in 
family  or  clan  should  be  the  priest.  Every  Israelite 
seems  to  have  been  competent  to  offer  sacrifices  up 
to  the  time  of  David;  and  in  Egypt,  as  in  India,  it 
was  regarded  as  important  that  every  family  should 
have  a  son  to  perform  the  due  rites  of  sacrifice. 
It  is  sure  that  when  families  cease  to  be  nomads 
and  settle  in  village  communities,  the  chief  acts  as 
priest.  Among  many  peoples  the  ruler  was  the 
chief  priest,  just  as  in  Great  Britain  King  Edward 
is  the  head  of  the  English  Church.  All  the  way 
from  Sparta  to  Scandinavia  kings  and  chiefs 
assumed  religious  functions,  and  Solomon  and 
David  were  quite  within  the  usual  royal  preroga- 
tives when  they  ministered  at  holy  places.  With 
the  development  of  the  complex  life  of  a  people 
by  the  increase  of  territory  and  the  growth  of 
numbers,  the  ruler  delegates  some  of  his  functions, 
and  there  arises  as  separate  from  his  person 
though  dependent  upon  him,  the  military  leader, 
the  judge,  and  the  priest.    Along  with  the  develop- 


Io6  RELIGION    IN    THE   MAKING 

ment  of  the  divine  office  of  priest  goes  the  increas- 
ing complexity  of  the  rehgious  ritual.  Simple  and 
occasional  rites  will  no  longer  serve.  Appointed 
feast  days,  the  growth  of  rigorous  duties,  and  the 
complexities  of  worship  increase  the  arduous  tasks 
of  religion,  and  the  varied  functions  call  for  a  par- 
ticular religious  caste.  As  the  Hebrew  priest 
promised  the  help  of  Jehovah  to  the  warlike 
Hebrews,  so  the  priests  promised  help  from  the 
gods  among  the  more  warlike  Spartans.  The 
judicial  function  of  the  priest  is  not  only  illustrated 
in  old  English  and  German  law,  but  is  found 
among  the  tribes  of  both  South  America  and  Africa 
as  well. 

To  sum  up:  We  have  seen  the  slow  development 
in  Israel  of  a  special  priestly  caste.  We  have 
found  that  the  services  of  religion  become  highly 
specialized  when  the  central  authority  becomes  ex- 
tended and  complete.  It  will  be  seen  that  the 
ritual  becomes  more  and  more  extended  and  exact 
as  time  goes  on.  Whether  the  Book  of  Leviticus 
were  written  by  Moses  or  not  is  of  no  importance 
to  this  study,  but  this  study  shows  that  the  observ- 
ance of  the  Book  of  Leviticus  lies  at  the  comple- 
tion of  the  development  of  the  Jewish  Church. 


SACRED    PERSONS  107 

THE    TRIBE    OF    LEVI 

The  problem  of  the  priestly  tribe  has  no  difficul- 
ties from  the  point  of  view  of  its  organization  as 
developed  after  the  Exile,  and  as  existent  in  the 
later  times  in  Jerusalem.  The  passage  in  Genesis 
does  not  speak  well  of  Levi.  He  and  his  brother 
Simeon  are  included  in  the  same  condemnation — 
"cursed  be  their  anger  for  it  was  fierce  and  their 
wrath  for  it  was  cruel ;  I  will  divide  them  in  Jacob 
and  scatter  them  in  Israel"  (Gen.  xlix.  7). 

The  whole  tribe  of  Levi  seems  to  have  been  set 
apart  for  religious  service. 

An  elaborate  account  of  the  organization  of  the 
tribe  of  Levi  is  found  in  Numbers.  The  command 
is,  "And  thou  shalt  give  the  Levites  unto  Aaron  and 
unto  his  sons;  they  are  wholly  given  unto  him  out 
of  the  children  of  Israel"  (Num.  iii.  9).  According 
to  this  history,  Jehovah  claimed  all  of  the  first-born 
males  of  the  children  of  Israel,  but  He  accepted 
the  tribe  of  Levi  instead  of  the  first-born  of  all  the 
tribes.  According  to  the  account  in  Deuteronomy, 
it  was  after  the  death  of  Aaron  that  the  tribe  was 
chosen.  Their  duties  are  briefly  stated  thus:  "At 
that  time  Jehovah  set  apart  the  tribe  of  Levi  to  bear 
the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  Jehovah,  to  stand  before 
Jehovah  to  minister  unto  him  and  to  bless  in  his 
name  unto  this  day"  (Deut.  x.  8). 


I08  RELIGION   IN    THE    MAKING 

In  the  account  of  the  distribution  of  the  land  in 
Joshua,  we  are  told  that  the  children  of  Joseph  were 
the  head  of  two  tribes  and  "therefore  they  gave  no 
part  unto  the  Levites  in  the  land  save  cities  to 
dwell  in  with  their  suburbs."  However,  the  title 
deed  to  lands  recorded  in  the  Book  of  Joshua  were 
not  immediately  of  sufficient  authority  to  put  the 
owners  of  them  into  possession  of  the  land,  as  we 
learn  in  the  historic  story  of  the  growth  of  Israel. 

After  the  kingdom  was  divided,  Jeroboam  chose 
two  old  sanctuaries,  one  at  Bethel  and  the  other  at 
Dan,  and  "made  priests  from  among  all  the  people 
that  were  not  of  the  sons  of  Levi,"  which  is  a  dis- 
tinct intimation  that  at  the  time  of  the  division  of 
the  kingdom  the  southern  part  of  the  kingdom  had 
definitely  accepted  the  idea  that  the  Levites  were  a 
sacred  tribe.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  the 
prophets  Amos  and  Hosea  do  not  deny  the  levitical 
rank  to  the  northern  priests. 

There  seems  to  have  been  no  formal  distinction 
between  the  priests  and  Levites  in  any  of  the  earlier 
history.  Any  male  of  the  house  of  Levi  was  en- 
titled to  be  a  priest.  The  Levites  are  specially  men- 
tioned as  having  authority  to  give  the  divine  bless- 
ing, which,  of  course,  is  essentially  a  priestly 
function. 

Lists  of  various  cities  are  given,  with  their  sur- 


SACRED   PERSONS  109 

rounding  fields  that  were  bestowed  upon  the  tribe 
of  Levi  for  their  support  instead  of  a  share  in  the 
inheritance  of  the  tribes.  It  is  also  stated  that  a 
tenth  of  all  that  was  possessed  by  Israel  was  the 
share  of  the  tribe.  Some  of  the  cities  that  belonged 
to  the  Levites  were  ancient  holy  cities  and  that  may 
account  for  the  growth  of  the  tradition.  It  was 
late  in  the  history  of  Israel  when  a  number  of  these 
cities  came  into  possession  of  the  kingdom,  and  they 
could  not  have  been  religious  gratuities  without  the 
consent  of  those  who  occupied  them. 

The  building  of  the  royal  temple  at  Jerusalem 
and  the  organization  of  an  elaborate  service  would 
call  for  a  definite  organization  of  men  to  perform 
the  duties.  Accordingly  we  find  that  David  had 
some  thirty-eight  thousand  Levites ;  twenty-four 
thousand  of  them  took  care  of  the  temple  and  its 
sacrifices,  six  thousand  were  officers  and  judges, 
four  thousand  were  porters  and  four  thousand  were 
musicians.  This  account  is  given  in  Chronicles, 
which  is,  confessedly,  of  late  origin. 

It  is  manifest  that  as  there  was  no  developed 
priesthood,  so  there  could  be  no  developed  sub- 
ordinate organization  in  times  of  confusion  and 
prior  to  orderly  social  development.  The  Chronicles 
give  us  a  full  account  of  priestly  genealogies,  but 
I  suppose  that  no  one  would  insist  upon  the  perfect 


no  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

correctness  of  all  the  genealogies  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. After  the  Exile,  priests  and  Levites  were 
carefully  distinguished  from  each  other.  The 
priests  seem  to  have  been  more  numerous  than  the 
Levites  and  the  religious  function  had  become  a 
holy  office  rather  than  the  function  of  a  tribe.  No 
clear  view  of  the  development  of  the  religious 
order  can  be  taken  without  having  in  mind  the 
gradual  exclusion  of  outside  places  of  worship  and 
the  development  of  the  central  shrine  at  Jerusalem. 
The  development  of  the  uniqueness  of  Jerusalem 
must  run  parallel  to  the  definiteness  of  function 
upon  the  part  of  the  men  who  performed  the  serv- 
ice. But  it  is  not  until  the  great  reforms  under 
Josiah  that  unity  of  religion  begins  to  have  a  sub- 
stantial  foundation  in  Israel. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF   THE  PROPHETS 

The  unprofessional  holy  office  in  Israel  was  that 
held  by  individuals,  usually  not  anointed,  called 
prophets.  They  belonged  to  no  special  tribe;  they 
seem  to  have  been  inducted  into  office  by  no  special 
ceremony ;  but  their  development  runs  parallel  with 
that  of  Israel  and  throws  great  light  upon  much  of 
its  life.  Indeed,  the  most  valuable  history  in  the 
Old  Testament  is  that  found  in  the  Books  of  the 
Prophets.      The    prophet,    however,    was   not   left 


SACRED   PERSONS  m 

without  a  special  place  in  the  Second  Law.  If  a 
prophet  should  urge  idolatry,  such  a  speaker  or 
dreamer  of  dreams  is  to  be  put  to  death,  because 
Jehovah  is  the  one  who  redeemed  Israel  from  the 
house  of  bondage. 

A  prophet  also  is  commanded  to  speak  the  truth, 
and  if  the  thing  does  not  follow  nor  come  to  pass, 
this  is  the  thing  which  the  Lord  has  not  spoken 
and  such  a  prophet  was  to  be  put  to  death;  but 
this  law  seems  to  have  been  a  little  too  rigorous 
and  in  practice  it  was  modified  to  teach  that  the 
predictions  of  prosperity  must  not  fail,  but  that  if 
the  predictions  of  evil  turn  the  people  to  repent- 
ance, then  the  disaster  may  be  averted.  The  per- 
formance of  Saul  has  been  pushed  too  far  in  the 
effort  to  show  that  the  early  prophets  were  simply 
given  to  frenzy  and  ecstasy.  Saul  was  manifestly 
an  insane  man  as,  among  other  things,  the  gusts 
of  temper  in  which  he  cast  his  javelin  at  David 
indicate.  And  Samuel,  the  man  who  anointed  Saul 
as  king,  is  conspicuous  as  prophet  as  well  as  being 
a  politician  and  a  judge.  The  notices  of  prophets 
that  we  have  in  the  early  days  of  the  kings  all 
indicate  the  sober  character  of  these  men.  Nathan 
and  Gad  are  typical  wise  men  who  have  influence 
with  the  king  and  with  his  people.  Though  there 
were  no  glorious  vestments  shining  with  jewels  to 


112  RELIGION   IN   THE    MAKING 

mark  the  prophet,  yet  he  was  not  without  his  own 
particular  kind  of  vestment.  The  hairy  mantle  of 
the  great  Elijah  was  probably  not  unusual,  just  as 
the  goat's  hair  mantle  was  of  special  significance 
to  the  Bedouins,  and  when  one  of  the  later  prophets 
speaks  of  the  days  to  come  he  adds,  "neither  shall 
they  wear  a  rough  garment  to  deceive." 

The  divinations  seem  to  have  been  connected 
rather  with  the  function  of  the  priest  than  with  that 
of  the  prophet.  Diviners,  oracles,  magicians,  sooth- 
sayers, were  found  in  some  form  or  other  among 
many  peoples.  Moses  met  them  in  Egypt,  Daniel 
found  them  in  Babylon,  Greece  had  her  Delphi, 
and  so  on  among  many  peoples  and  tribes. 

The  notices  of  the  prophets  are  hardly  sufficient 
to  indicate  that  there  were  regular  communities  In 
which  they  lived  In  common  after  the  fashion  of 
monasteries.  And  yet  it  would  seem  from  the 
stories  of  Elijah  and  Elisha  that  possibly  there 
were.  However,  It  was  not  from  these  schools,  nor 
as  representing  their  special  wisdom,  that  the  great 
prophetic  voices  spoke.  Elijah  shows  what  the 
prophet  can  do  in  politics  and  that  here  he  may 
even  be  the  rival  of  the  priest,  for  he  destroys  the 
throne  in  two  kingdoms  and  anoints  Hazael  for 
Syria  and  Jehu  for  Israel  while  he  left  the  succes- 
sion of  his  own  office  to  Elisha. 


SACRED   PERSONS  113 

It  is  a  great  step  forward  to  the  time  when  Amos 
has  his  contests  with  the  priest  of  Bethel;  contests 
with   priests   both    true    and    false    were    repeated 
generation  by  generation.     These  literary  prophets 
manifest    a    splendid    individualism.      With    them 
there  were  no  guilds,  no  mechanism  of  religion,  no 
shrines  and  no  wonders.    Their  great  messages  are 
in  the  beginning  essentially  ethical  messages.    They 
are  addressed  to  their  own  people  and  to  their  own 
time.     They  deal  not  alone  with  personal  conduct, 
but  with  messages   of  political  wisdom,  reveaHng 
keenness  of  insight,  as  well  as  righteousness  of  aim. 
The  qualities  that  made  these  writings  immortal  are 
not   vague    and    doubtful    forecasts    of   particular 
events,  but  they  tingle  through  and  through  with  a 
conception  of  righteousness,  scorn  of  dishonor,  and 
hatred  of  the  lie.     And  this  is  not  all.     From  the 
first  to  the  last  of  them  they  speak  an  abiding  faith 
in  the  final  triumph  of  righteousness.     The  psalm 
of  hope  cannot  die  out  of  their  hearts.    Not  all  of 
them  were  so   radiant  and  glowing  as  the  great 
prophet  who  wrote  hymns  to  take  the  place  of  those 
psalms  of  Zion  which  the  captives  could  not  sing 
by  the  rivers  of  Babylon.     Let  others  hang  their 
harps   on  the  willows.     His  mighty  hand   should 
strike  from  one  harp  a  note  of  triumph  so  distinct 
that  the  music  still  lives  in  the  world  and  can  never 
die  until  the  sun  grows  cold. 

8 


CHAPTER  VIII 
SACRED   PLACES 

THE    ALTAR 

Every  religion  has  had  its  sacred  places.  Natur- 
ally, the  nature  of  the  religion  has  influenced  the 
conception  of  the  sacred  place.  There  have  been 
holy  caves,  holy  fountains,  holy  trees,  holy  altars, 
holy  temples,  and  holy  areas  of  land  sometimes  not 
inclosed  at  all  or  inclosed  by  walls.  Ancestor  wor- 
shipers have  had  a  tendency  to  make  their  tombs 
places  devoted  to  their  religion.  Sacred  trees  and 
fountains  have  come  into  nature  worship,  and  it 
may  be  that  sacred  caves  have  even  descended  from 
the  cave  dwellers.  The  sacred  place  shows  a  de- 
velopment parallel  to  that  of  the  sacred  man. 
Among  the  Hebrews,  as  among  most  peoples,  the 
altars  were  older  than  temples.  The  first  recorded 
altar  is  that  of  Noah  built  unto  the  Lord  upon 
landing  from  his  voyage,  when  he  took  of  every 
clean  beast  and  every  clean  fowl  and  offered  them. 
This  altar  was  probably  of  earth,  and  that  seems  to 
have  been  the  primitive  form.  An  ancient  law 
reads :  "An  altar  of  earth  thou  shalt  make  unto  me 
114 


SACRED    PLACES  115 

and  shalt  sacrifice  thereon;  in  all  places  where  I 
record  my  name  I  will  come  unto  thee  and  I  will 
bless  thee"  (Ex.  xx.  24).  The  expression  ''all 
places  where  I  record  my  name"  is  significant  as 
indicating  the  general  origin  of  sacred  places. 

In  the  account  of  the  wanderings  of  Abraham 
when  he  moved  unto  a  mountain  on  the  east  of 
Bethel,  he  built  an  altar  unto  the  Lord  after  having 
pitched  his  tent  and  called  upon  the  name  of  the 
Lord  (Gen.  xii.  8).  Where  the  ark  is  said  to  have 
landed  and  where  Abraham  pitched  his  tent  in  the 
promised  land,  there  was  sufficient  community  of 
interest  between  God  and  man  for  an  altar  to  be 
erected.  But  once  again  Abraham  returns  to 
Bethel:  "He  came  unto  the  place  of  the  altar  which 
he  had  made  there  at  the  first,  and  there  Abram 
called  on  the  name  of  the  Lord."  This  recurrent 
visit  indicates  the  growth  of  holy  places,  and  so 
Bethel,  renewed  again  and  again  in  the  history  of 
Israel  by  sacred  transactions,  became  at  last  per- 
manently one  of  the  holy  places  of  Israel.  It  may 
not  have  been  wholly  by  accident  that  Jacob  set  up 
his  pillar  at  Bethel,  or  it  may  be  that  this  was  some 
other  place  but  still  chosen  as  a  House  of  God 
because  of  the  holy  dream. 

At  a  later  time  in  the  history  of  Jacob,  the  Lord 
commanded  him  to  "arise,  go  up  to  Bethel  and  dwell 


Il6  RELIGION    IN    THE   MAKING 

there,  and  make  there  an  altar  unto  God;"  and  we 
read  further  that  Jacob  took  from  his  people  in 
preparation  for  this  worship,  all  their  strange  gods, 
and  their  earrings,  and  "J^^ob  hid  them  under  the 
oak  which  was  by  Shechem."  Here  is  a  notice  of 
the  holy  tree  and  the  beginning  of  another  holy 
shrine.  Shechem,  too,  is  a  place  honored  by  a 
visit  from  Abraham.  It  was  where  Joshua  uttered 
his  farewell  to  Israel,  and  "there  he  took  a  great 
stone  and  set  up  there  under  an  oak  that  was  by 
the  sanctuary  of  the  Lord,"  and  here  went  the  ten 
tribes  to  set  up  Rehoboam  as  king. 

Another  of  the  sacred  places  of  Israel  was  the 
town  called  Hebron.  It  was  here  also  that  Abram 
rested  his  tent  for  a  long  residence  and  built  there 
an  altar  unto  the  Lord.  The  place  was  further 
sanctified  by  the  memorable  theophany  when  the 
Lord  appeared  unto  him  in  the  plains  of  Mamreh 
and  "he  sat  in  the  tent  door  in  the  heat  of  the  day." 

And  after  the  great  battle  of  Israel  with  Amalek, 
Moses  set  up  an  altar  and  called  the  name  of  it 
"The  Lord  my  Banner." 

It  is  evident  that  the  erection  of  an  altar  was 
proper  in  any  place  of  significance,  and  in  the  days 
of  the  making  of  Israel  recorded  in  Judges  and 
Samuel,  there  were  altars  in  many  places.     The 


SACRED    PLACES  117 

general  law  was  that  sacred  history  made  the  loca- 
tion of  the  events  also  sacred. 

In  like  manner  there  were  certain  sacred  moun- 
tains, Mt.  Sinai  by  way  of  preeminence,  but  also 
Mt.  Moriah  with  Gerizim  and  Ebal. 

The  earlier  law  had  suggested  earth  as  the 
proper  material  for  an  altar.  We  come  to  the  time 
of  Solomon's  temple,  and  here  we  find  an  altar 
made  of  brass.  According  to  the  chronicler  this 
altar  was  twenty  cubits  long,  twenty  cubits  wide, 
and  ten  cubits  high,  but  notwithstanding  the  size  of 
this  altar,  it  was  necessary  for  the  king  to  hallow 
the  middle  of  the  court,  and  there  he  offered  burnt- 
offerings  and  meat-offerings,  evidently  upon  an 
altar  of  earth  according  to  the  ancient  law.  The 
altar  of  stone  was  permitted  in  the  law  though  it 
was  not  to  be  hewn  stone,  but  there  is  no  account 
of  any  authority  for  a  brazen  altar. 

But  it  was  going  further  away  from  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  fathers  when  King  Ahaz,  on  a  cere- 
monial visit  at  Damascus  to  TIglath-Pileser,  king 
of  Assyria,  saw  an  altar  that  pleased  him  at 
Damascus  and  sent  to  his  principal  priest,  Urijah, 
the  fashion  of  the  altar  and  the  pattern  of  it,  ac- 
cording to  all  the  workmanship  thereof,  that  a 
copy  might  be  made  for  him ;  and  when  Ahaz  had 
returned    from    Damascus    he    found    the    altar 


Il8  RELIGION   IN    THE    MAKING 

already  erected.  It  seems  that  he  himself  offered 
his  own  sacrifices,  and  it  seems  that  this  altar 
became  his  own  special  way  of  approaching  God. 

Sacred  trees  have  already  been  referred  to. 
Abraham  is  said  to  have  planted  one  in  Beersheba. 
It  was  under  an  oak  at  Shechem  that  Jacob  hid  his 
treasures ;  It  was  under  an  oak  that  Gideon  met  the 
angel  of  the  Lord  and  there  built  an  altar,  and, 
long  before,  the  nurse  of  Rebecca  was  buried  at 
Bethel  under  an  oak.  The  sign  came  to  David  that 
he  should  fight  against  the  Philistines  when  he 
heard  "the  sound  of  the  going  in  the  tops  of  the 
mulberry  trees,  for  then  shall  the  Lord  go  out  before 
thee  to  smite  the  hosts  of  the  Philistines"  (2  Sam. 
V.  24).  The  prophet  Hosea  indicates  that  there 
were  licentious  rites  of  religion  that  took  place 
"under  oaks  and  poplars  and  elms  because  the 
shadow  thereof  is  good."  Ezekiel  In  his  vision  was 
brought  Into  the  Inner  court  of  the  Lord's  house 
and  even  between  the  porch  and  the  altar  he  saw 
"five  and  twenty  men  with  their  backs  toward  the 
temple  of  the  Lord,  their  faces  toward  the  east,  and 
they  worshiped  the  sun  toward  the  east."  Ezekiel 
also  says  that  at  the  gate  of  the  Lord  there  sat 
women  weeping  for  Tammuz.  Tammuz  repre- 
sented the  sun  of  life.  Under  the  withering  sun 
he  died,  but  came  to  life  again  the  next  spring. 


SACRED    PLACES  119 

Such  is  the  Babylonian  myth  which  was  the  fore- 
runner of  All  Souls'  Day. 

The  worship  of  the  planets  seems  to  have  come 
late,  although  there  were  altars  upon  the  roofs  of 
the  houses  in  the  days  of  Ahaz  and  there  were 
symbolical  horses  for  the  sun  in  front  of  the  house 
of  the  Lord.  It  was  significant  when  Isaiah  re- 
buked the  astrologers,  the  star-gazers,  and  the 
monthly  foretellers,  calling  the  attention  of  his 
people  to  the  shining  heavens  in  these  words :  "Lift 
up  your  eyes  on  high  and  behold  who  hath  created 
these  things;  that  bringeth  out  their  host  by  num- 
ber; he  calleth  them  all  by  names  by  the  greatness 
of  his  might,  for  that  he  is  strong  in  power;  not 
one  faileth"  (Isa.  xl.  26). 

The  Book  of  Deuteronomy  was  doubtless  the 
book  of  the  law  which  Hilkiah,  the  high  priest, 
brought  unto  the  young  king  Josiah.  That  was  a 
great  day  for  Israel  and  for  the  world,  whoever 
wrote  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  and  wherever 
Hilkiah  found  it.  For  we  read  that  whereas  hith- 
erto they  have  been  permitted  to  worship  at  any 
altar  which  might  serve,  the  time  should  come 
when  there  would  be  one  place  "which  the  Lord 
your  God  shall  choose  to  cause  his  name  to  dwell 
there;  thither  shall  ye  bring  all  that  I  command 


120  RELIGION   IN   THE    MAKING 

you;  your  burnt-offerings,  and  your  sacrifices  and 
your  tithes"   (Deut.  xii.). 

Hitherto  the  eating  of  flesh  was  always  accom- 
panied with  divine  sacrifice ;  henceforth,  if  they  were 
too  far  away  from  the  place  which  God  hath  chosen, 
they  might  kill  and  eat  in  their  gates  wherever  they 
were  and  whatsoever  the  soul  lusted  for.  It  was  a 
great  reformation  that  Josiah  undertook  in  answer 
to  this  copy  of  the  law;  not  alone  were  vessels  of 
Baal  destroyed  but  the  altars  to  Baal  round  about 
Jerusalem  were  broken  down  and  destroyed.  The 
horses  to  the  sun  and  the  altars  upon  the  tops  of 
the  upper  chambers  of  the  houses,  the  strange  altars 
which  Manasseh  had  made  in  the  house  of  the 
Lord,  these  were  all  destroyed.  The  very  dust  of 
them  was  cast  into  the  brook  Kidron  and  the 
valley  of  Tophet  was  defiled  so  that  no  man  might 
make  his  son  or  daughter  pass  through  the  fire  as 
a  sacrifice  to  Moloch.  Not  only  these  altars  were 
destroyed,  but  the  altar  at  Bethel  was  broken  down 
and  stamped  small  to  powder.  The  sepulchers 
were  robbed  of  their  bones,  and  the  bones  were 
burned  upon  the  altar  of  Bethel  in  order  to  pollute 
it  forever.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  new 
doctrine  of  one  great  altar  and  a  central  shrine 
where  the  feasts  of  religion  might  properly  take 
place. 


SACRED    PLACES  121 

THE   HIGH   PLACES 

The  elevations  of  the  earth  with  wide-reaching 
views  and  the  sense  of  exaltation  which  comes  to 
the  man  who  stands  upon  their  summits  have  had 
much  significance  in  the  history  of  religion.  It  is 
far  older  than  the  thought  that  a  temple  is  more 
conspicuous  and  so  more  significant  because  of 
its  elevated  position.  And  besides,  this  is  not  a 
universal  fact.  It  probably  came  in  with  a  form 
of  nature  worship  that  was  connected  with  the 
heavenly  bodies.  The  great  height  became  an  altar, 
and  there  men  beheld  the  first  rays  of  light  which 
gilded  the  earth  with  the  symbol  of  universal  life 
and  power. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  signifi- 
cance of  hills  and  mountains  in  the  religion  of 
Israel.  Jehovah  was  the  God  of  the  hills.  It  is 
also  important  to  note,  however,  that  this  by  no 
means  exhausts  the  historical  uses  of  high  places, 
and  it  is  necessary  to  give  a  brief  account  of  them 
that  we  may  understand  their  value  for  the  Semites. 
These  men,  whether  from  the  Euphrates  or  from 
the  Nile,  were  men  of  the  lowlands,  where  life  may 
be  easy  and  labor  well  rewarded,  but  was  always 
commonplace,  and  they  felt  the  fascination  of  the 
sterile  heights  where  life  seems  noble  and  the  soul 
IS  free.    So  it  was  that  the  Hebrews,  whether  in  the 


122  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

worship  of  Jehovah  or  falling  into  their  oft-time 
idolatries,  set  great  store  by  the  high  places. 

When  Saul  visited  Samuel  at  the  town  of  Ramah 
he  not  only  went  to  the  high  places  above  the  town, 
but  the  prophet  took  him  apart  upon  the  roof  of 
the  house, — but  that  is  not  so  surprising,  since  the 
roofs  of  houses  were  prepared  ordinarily  for  the  re- 
ception of  guests.  It  is  important  to  note  that  the 
high  place  was  also  the  holy  place  without  refer- 
ence to  the  form  of  religion.  When  Saul  called  a 
council  of  those  who  were  nearest  to  him  at  the 
time  that  David  had  gathered  his  men  in  the  cave 
of  Adullam,  the  council  was  called  in  a  grove  on  a 
high  place  near  Gibeah.  It  was  at  the  same  place 
where  the  first  feast  took  place  when  he  was  the 
guest  of  Samuel  at  the  time  of  the  anointing.  This 
sacred  place  he  sought  again  when  the  question 
arose  of  the  security  of  his  throne.  It  was  not 
enough  for  Jeroboam  to  make  idols  for  the  worship 
of  the  northern  kingdom,  but  he  also  established 
high  places  with  groves  on  the  high  hills  and  the 
green  trees  that  were  adapted  to  the  services.  When 
Elijah  nerved  himself  for  the  final  issue  between 
Jehovah  and  the  Baalim,  he  bade  all  Israel  gather 
unto  Mt.  Carmel  as  unto  a  sacred  height  where  the 
contest  might  be  less  doubtful.  And  when  his 
spirit  was  broken  and  he  knew  not  what  to  do,  he 


SACRED    PLACES  123 

went  to  Horeb  the  mount  of  God  and  there  he  had 
speech  with  his  divine  Ruler.  Afterwards,  instead 
of  Horeb,  there  was  the  mountain  of  the  Lord  in 
Jerusalem  upon  which  stood  the  House  of  the  God 
of  Jacob,  and  the  call  to  the  people  was,  Let  us 
go  up  *'and  he  will  teach  us  of  his  ways  and  we  will 
walk  in  his  paths,  for  out  of  Zion  shall  come  forth 
the  law  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  from  Jerusalem" 
(Isa.  ii.  3). 

The  great  reformation  under  Hezekiah,  who  had 
for  one  of  his  counselors  the  prophet  Isaiah,  re- 
veals him  as  a  special  servant  of  God.  "He  trusted 
in  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  so  that  after  him 
was  none  like  him  among  the  kings  of  Judah  nor 
among  them  that  were  before  him."  Not  only  did 
he  rebel  against  the  king  of  Assyria  and  smite  the 
Philistines,  but  in  his  religious  reformation  he 
removed  the  high  places  and  brake  the  pillars.  We 
also  now  hear  of  one  altar  and  one  place  of  wor- 
ship that  is  alone  permitted  to  the  people  of  Judah, 
and  that  is  the  temple  in  Jerusalem.  Even  the  inter- 
national politics  between  Egypt  and  Assyria  are 
not  enough  to  prevent  the  revival  of  the  religious 
interest  that  was  to  be  most  far-reaching  in  Its 
consequences.  In  the  still  greater  reformation 
under  Josiah  to  which  reference  has  already  been 
made,  the  high  places  in  the  cities  of  Judah  upon 


124  RELIGION   IN    THE    MAKING 

which  incense  had  formerly  been  offered  were 
destroyed,  and  the  mount  of  corruption  built  by 
Solomon  for  the  various  gods  to  whom  he  fur- 
nished hospitality  was  also  broken  and  defiled. 

If  the  high  places  were,  some  of  them,  ancient 
shrines  of  the  Canaanites  and  they  had  been  adopted 
by  Israel  upon  his  arrival  in  the  land,  we  may  see 
in  this  conflict  between  Jehovah  and  the  Baalim  two 
stages :  one  in  which  the  high  places  were  accepted 
as  in  their  very  nature  adapted  to  become  holy 
unto  the  Lord;  but  when  the  second  stage  enters, 
and  the  rule  of  Jehovah  becomes  not  only  supreme 
but  with  a  definite  center  at  Jerusalem,  the  high 
places  became  an  abomination.  Every  recurrent 
idolatry  would  find  its  place  upon  some  high  hill, 
and  so  the  attitude  of  the  prophets  toward  the  high 
places  becomes  luminous  with  a  religious  purpose. 

Hosea  declares  in  his  denunciations,  "I  will  visit 
upon  her  the  days  of  Baalim  wherein  she  burns 
incense  to  them."  Before  him  Amos  declares, 
"And  the  high  places  of  Isaac  shall  be  desolate  and 
the  sanctuaries  of  Israel  shall  be  laid  waste." 
Jeremiah  wails,  "Their  children  remember  their 
altars  and  their  groves  by  the  green  trees  upon  the 
high  hills."  Ezekiel  had  identified  the  high  places 
with  idolatry  in  the  most  definite  manner.  "Ye 
shall  know  that  I  am  Lord  when  their  slain  men 


SACRED    PLACES  125 

shall  be  among  their  idols  round  about  their  altars 
upon  every  high  hill  in  all  the  tops  of  the  moun- 
tains and  under  every  green  tree  and  under  every 
thick  oak"  (Ezek.  vi.  13).  Even  the  sacred  tree  of 
the  earlier  times  has  fallen  under  condemnation. 

Ezekiel  also  furnishes  us  a  very  valuable  connec- 
tion when  he  says :  'Thus  saith  the  Lord  God :  yet 
in  this  your  fathers  have  blasphemed  me  in  that 
they  have  committed  a  trespass  against  me.  For 
when  I  had  brought  them  into  the  land  for  the 
which  I  lifted  up  mine  hand  to  give  it  to  them,  then 
they  saw  every  high  hill  and  all  the  thick  trees  and 
they  offered  there  their  sacrifices  and  there  they 
presented  the  provocation  of  their  offering;  there 
also  they  made  their  sweet  savor  and  they  poured 
out  their  drink  offerings  (Ezek.  xx.  27-29). 

Still  more  clear  does  the  situation  become  when 
we  read  the  statutes  of  Deuteronomy,  for  they  indi- 
cate the  Canaanitish  origin  of  high  places  as  well 
as  the  later  sanctity  of  a  central  shrine,  which  must 
doom  them  as  places  of  worship.  Thus  the  Second 
Law :  "Ye  shall  surely  destroy  all  the  places  wherein 
the  nations  that  ye  have  dispossessed  served  their 
gods  upon  the  high  mountains  and  upon  the  hills 
and  under  every  green  tree ;  but  unto  the  place 
which  the  Lord  your  God  shall  choose  out  of  all 
your  tribes  to  put  his  name  there,  even  unto  his 


126  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

habitation  shall  ye  seek  and  thither  thou  shalt  come" 
(Deut.  xii.  1-7).  We  are  not  surprised,  therefore, 
to  find  that  Leviticus  in  forecasting  the  future  in 
the  spirit  of  Ezekiel  declares,  ''And  I  will  destroy 
your  high  places  and  cut  down  your  sun  images 
and  cast  your  dead  bodies  upon  the  bodies  of  your 
idols  and  my  soul  shall  abhor  you"  (Lev.  xxvi.  30). 

These  conclusions  seem  to  be  well  founded.  The 
worship  of  the  Baalim  upon  certain  high  places 
which  became  sanctuaries  was  already  existent 
when  Israel  entered  the  land.  The  conquerors 
accepted  the  traditions  of  the  conquered  with  re- 
spect to  the  holy  memories  that  belonged  to  the 
places  within  the  land. 

For  a  long  time  the  worship  of  Jehovah  by  those 
who  were  faithful  to  him  was  conducted  v/ithout 
rebuke  upon  high  places. 

When  the  temple  was  established  at  the  capital  in 
Jerusalem,  it  was  already  a  prophecy  of  a  single 
place  of  worship.  The  destruction  of  the  high 
places  was  not  all  in  the  interests  of  the  worship 
of  Jehovah  as  against  the  strange  gods.  It  was  in 
the  interest  of  the  concentration  of  worship  with 
which  the  statesmanship  of  the  priest  Hilkiah  seems 
to  have  had  as  much  to  do  as  had  the  pious  devo- 
tion of  the  king  Hezekiah. 

The  voice  of  the  prophets  is  raised  in  condem- 


SACRED    PLACES  127 

nation  of  the  high  places  because  by  their  time  the 
mountains,  the  hills,  and  the  green  trees  had  come 
to  symbolize  idolatry,  and  for  them  their  destruction 
was  in  the  interests  of  the  worship  of  Jehovah  as 
the  one  God.  Here  is  one  of  the  numerous  interests 
in  which  priest  and  prophet  combine  though  obvi- 
ously from  different  reasons. 

THE   TEMPLE 

The  story  of  the  temple  in  human  history  would 
represent  an  account  of  the  cultural  development 
of  religion.  As  the  altar  was  essential  to  the  wor- 
shipers in  all  sacrificial  religions,  so  the  temple  was 
representative  of  the  presence  of  God  in  every  re- 
ligion. The  chief  altar  always  stood  outside  the 
temple.  The  temple  itself  was  regarded  literally  as 
a  House  of  God.  It  was  because  the  divine  pres- 
ence needed  to  be  recognized  by  an  official  house 
other  than  that  occupied  by  the  worshiper  that 
architecture  had  its  beginnings,  its  unfolding,  and 
its  highest  significance.  Temples  were  required  to 
shelter  the  statues  of  the  gods  and  in  some  form  or 
other  all  the  ancient  religions  made  their  temples 
their  divine  dwelling  places.  Into  every  new  temple 
by  some  special  dedication  the  divine  presence  was 
invoked  and  it  was  not  a  presence  of  the  imagina- 
tion  or  the   emotion,  but   a   definite  presence   of 


128  RELIGION   IN    THE    MAKING 

veritable  reality.  All  religions  sang  psalms  like  to 
the  Hebrew  hymn:  "Arise,  O  Lord,  into  thy  rest- 
ing place;  thou  and  the  ark  of  thy  strength.  For 
Jehovah  hath  chosen  Zion ;  he  hath  desired  it  for 
his  habitation.  This  is  my  resting  place  forever. 
Here  will  I  dwell;  for  I  have  desired  it"  (Psa. 
cxxxii.).  The  Hebrews  were  not  alone  in  the 
possession  of  a  Holy  of  Holies,  the  dark  room 
where  God  especially  did  dwell  and  where  He 
wrapped  Himself  round  with  clouds  and  thick 
darkness.  For  the  Greek  oracles  and  mysteries 
there  were  such  awful  shadows,  and  Egyptian 
temples  had  within  them  a  seat  of  special  sanctity. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  at  length  upon  the 
tabernacle  said  to  have  been  made  in  the  wilderness. 
A  single  obscure  reference  to  the  tabernacle  as 
having  been  set  up  In  Shiloh  by  Joshua  Is  the  only 
historic  allusion  to  it  after  the  wilderness,  and  Its 
dimensions  are  described  as  being  essentially  the 
same  as  the  temple  of  Solomon.  The  sanctuary  at 
Shiloh,  however,  seems  to  have  continued  for  some 
time  as,  at  least,  a  principal  place  of  worship,  for  in 
the  Book  of  Judges  we  read  that  the  House  of  God 
was  In  Shiloh  (Judges  xvlii.  31).  There  were 
doubtless  many  temples  of  more  or  less  importance 
in  Palestine  besides  the  later  ones  at  Jerusalem. 
We  read  that  the  men  of  Shechem  held  the  religious 


SACRED    PLACES  129 

festival  of  the  vineyard  ''and  went  into  the  house  of 
their  God  and  did  eat  and  drink"  (Judges  ix.  27). 
If  the  PhiHstines  had  temples,  as  the  story  of  Sam- 
son declares,  it  is  quite  certain  that  other  parts  of 
the  land  were  similarly  favored.  There  seems  also 
to  have  been  a  temple  to  Jehovah  in  Nob  which 
David  found  in  the  care  of  the  priest  Ahimelech 
who  also  gave  to  him  and  to  his  young  men  food 
from  the  holy  bread. 

Solomon's  temple  stands  at  the  beginning  of 
Hebrew  temple  history  because  it  was  the  first 
temple  built  in  the  capital  city,  at  least  the  first 
temple  for  the  worship  of  Jehovah.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  enter  into  any  detailed  description  further 
than  it  may  be  necessary  to  illuminate  some  of  its 
features.  The  temple  is  said  to  have  been  like  the 
temple  at  Hierapolis  described  by  Lucian,  and  If 
so,  it  was  of  Phoenician  architecture.  Ruskin  has 
taught  us  the  use  of  conventionalized  nature  in 
ornament,  which  at  once  helps  us  to  see  how  the 
palm  tree  and  the  cherub  were  the  chief  decorations 
of  this  temple.  The  cherub  was  a  winged  sphinx 
and  the  palm  with  winged  animals  may  be  seen  In 
fragments  of  decorations  in  the  Louvre.  Some 
have  thought  that  the  cherub  was  a  gift  from  the 
architecture  of  Assyria,  but  Ezeklel  Intimates  that 
It  came  from  Tyre.  "Thou  art  the  anointed  cherub 
9 


130  RELIGION  IN   THE   MAKING 

that  covereth ;  and  I  have  set  thee  so  that  thou  wast 
upon  the  holy  mountain  of  God;  thou  hast  walked 
up  and  down  in  the  midst  of  the  stones  of  fire.  I 
have  cast  thee  as  profane  out  of  the  mountain  of 
God  and  I  have  destroyed  thee,  O  covering  cherub, 
from  the  midst  of  the  stones  of  fire"  (Ezek.  xxviii. 
14-18).  This,  however,  may  have  been  only  a  sym- 
bolical use  of  the  cherub  to  indicate  the  glory  of 
Tyre.  The  heart  of  the  temple  was  the  Holy  of 
Holies.  There  was  an  outer  chamber  called  the 
Holy  Place.  The  Holy  Place  and  the  Holy  of 
Holies  were  covered  with  a  roof  probably  resting 
upon  pillars  like  the  temple  of  Gaza.  The  external 
measurements  of  the  house  outside  was  forty-five 
cubits  by  ninety  cubits,  much  smaller  that  the  great 
cathedrals  with  which  we  are  familiar.  In  front  of 
the  temple  were  two  free  pillars  of  bronze  said  to 
have  been  eighteen  cubits  high  and  twelve  cubits  in 
circumference.  These  bronze  pillars  are  said  to 
have  been  cast  by  Hiram,  king  of  Tyre.  Some 
think  that  the  portal  of  the  porch  of  the  temple 
rested  upon  them.  Two  similar  pillars  are  de- 
scribed by  Herodotus  as  having  been  in  the  sanctu- 
ary of  Melkarth  at  Tyre. 

There  were  capitals  of  lily  work  which  were  lotus 
flowers  used  for  the  purpose  of  ornament.  Similar 
capitals  have  been  found  in  Cyprus.    The  partition 


SACRED    PLACES  131 

between  the  Holy  of  Holies  and  the  Holy  Place 
was  made  of  olive  wood.  The  Holy  Place  was 
floored  with  cypress  and  paneled  with  cedar.  On 
three  sides  of  the  temple  there  were  three  stories  of 
small  chambers,  the  walls  gradually  thinning  in  their 
ascent.  The  windows  must  have  been  above  these 
chambers.  This  temple  was  surrounded  by  an 
inner  court  the  size  of  which  we  do  not  know,  but 
in  Ezekiel's  temple,  which  of  course  is  an  ideal 
description  and  was  never  realized,  the  size  of  the 
court  is  given  as  one  hundred  by  one  hundred  cubits. 
The  inner  court  was  surrounded  by  a  wall  made 
of  three  courses  of  hewn  stone  and  cedar  beams. 
The  outer  court  extended  to  the  edge  of  Temple 
Hill  and  was  surrounded  by  walls,  making  it  part 
of  the  citadel.  The  inner  court  was  the  general 
place  of  assembly  of  the  people,  and  in  front  of  the 
temple  the  sacrifices  were  offered.  The  Holy  Place 
was  used  for  the  offering  of  incense,  but  the  temple 
building  itself  was  not  for  the  people  except  that  in 
their  behalf  certain  services  were  performed,  and 
the  Holy  of  Holies  was  set  apart  for  the  use  of  the 
High  Priest.  The  temple,  therefore,  must  be  under- 
stood as  a  central  symbol  of  the  religious  life  of 
the  people,  but  in  no  sense  a  place  of  assembly. 

Elaborate  description  Is  given  of  the  furnishings 
of  the  temple,  but  it  Is  not  necessary  In  this  connec- 


132  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

tion  to  follow  that  part  of  the  subject.  They  were 
probably  more  costly  and  important  than  some  of 
our  later  scholars  believe. 

The  temple  was  plundered  first  by  Shishak  of 
Egypt,  who  ''took  away  the  treasures  of  the  House 
of  Jehovah  and  the  treasures  of  the  king's  house; 
he  even  took  the  shields  of  gold  which  Solomon  had 
made"  (i  Kings  xiv.  26).  This  invasion  of  Shishak 
is  corroborated  by  the  inscriptions  in  Egypt.  There 
is  a  more  doubtful  reference  to  a  second  plundering 
by  the  Philistines.  Once  more,  Joash,  king  of 
Israel,  plundered  the  temple,  taking  ''all  the  gold 
and  silver  and  all  the  vessels  that  were  found  in  the 
house  of  Jehovah  and  in  the  treasures  of  the  king's 
house"  (2  Kings  xiv.  14).  Once  again,  Nebuchad- 
rezzar, king  of  Babylon,  robbed  the  temple  and 
carried  out  thence  "All  the  treasures  of  the  house 
of  Jehovah  and  the  treasures  of  the  king's  house, 
and  cut  in  pieces  all  the  vessels  of  gold  which  Solo- 
mon, king  of  Israel,  had  made  in  the  temple  of 
Jehovah"  (2  Kings  xxiv.  13).  Eleven  years  after 
the  city  was  captured  and  the  temple  destroyed.  It 
is  not  likely  that  the  king  of  Babylon  obtained  quite 
as  much  plunder  as  the  face  of  the  narrative  indi- 
cates, for  certainly  Shishak  had  been  there  before 
him. 

The  effect  of  the  Exile  must  be  more  fully  con- 


SACRED    PLACES  133 

sidered  in  the  treatment  of  the  poHtical  fortunes  of 
Israel.  There  seems  Httle  question  that  it  had  also 
a  profound  effect  upon  its  religious  life.  After  the 
Exile  we  hear  no  more  of  idolatry  in  any  form,  nor 
is  there  the  note  of  any  important  prophetic  voice. 
The  ritual  became  complete  and  the  priest  was  in 
authority.  It  is  because  of  the  relation  of  the 
priest  to  the  government  of  later  Israel  that  fuller 
discussion  must  be  postponed. 

It  is  necessary,  however,  to  have  some  correct 
view  of  the  situation.  It  is  often  taken  for  granted 
that  the  entire  body  of  the  people  was  removed  from 
Judea  to  Babylon.  When  Jehoiachim,  after  a  feeble 
defense,  surrendered  to  the  Babylonian  army,  he 
was  ordered,  together  with  the  most  distinguished 
men  and  such  portable  booty  as  could  be  found,  to 
be  sent  to  Babylon,  but  eleven  years  after  the  ruler 
of  the  Babylonian  province  which  had  been  erected 
out  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah  planned  an  insurrec- 
tion of  international  proportions.  In  586  the  suc- 
cessful siege  came  to  an  end,  the  temple  and  the 
royal  palace  were  destroyed,  and  the  high  priest 
and  a  number  of  important  Jews  were  put  to  death. 
The  blinded  Zedekiah  and  a  considerable  number 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  were  taken  to 
Babylon.  There  was  still  a  later  deportation  in 
consequence  of  local  troubles.     It  seems  that  alto- 


134  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

gether  there  were  about  four  thousand  six  hundred 
males  (Jer.  Hi.  28-30)  but  according  to  the  account 
in  Kings  the  number  must  have  been  considerably 
larger,  perhaps  as  many  as  twelve  thousand  men. 
It  is  certain  that  many  of  the  families  also  accom- 
panied them,  so  that  probably  some  forty  thousand 
went  into  exile. 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  a  large  number  of 
people  must  have  remained  in  and  about  Jerusalem. 
It  would  seem  from  writings  of  the  prophets  that 
the  Hebrews  in  Babylon,  many  of  them,  com- 
promised their  religious  life  at  the  same  time  that 
they  shared  in  the  prosperity  of  their  new  home. 
It  is  evident  that  the  Jews  were  given  a  favorable 
position  by  their  new  masters.  The  friendship  of 
the  Persian  king  Cyrus  may  have  had  some  relig- 
ious basis,  though  the  discussion  of  that  question 
would  lead  us  too  far  afield. 

The  return  of  the  exiles  under  Ezra  was  by  the 
permission  of  the  king  and  the  voluntary  choice  of 
the  Hebrews.  The  number  was  not  large,  being 
about  five  or  six  thousand  people  altogether.  But 
the  men  who  returned  were  full  of  puritan  zeal  and 
were  making  a  religious  journey  with  a  religious 
purpose.  This  body,  however,  though  small,  was 
also  invested  with  the  function  of  government,  and 
Ezra   and    Nehemiah   after   many   difficulties    sue- 


SACRED    PLACES  135 

ceeded  in  reestablishing  the  old  worship  though 
much  modified  in  details,  and  upon  the  ruins  of  the 
Davidic  kingdom  erected  a  reign  of  priests. 

During  the  years  of  the  Exile,  the  old  religion 
was  kept  up,  at  least  in  some  degree,  by  the  Hebrews 
who  remained  at  home,  though  they  had  drawn  to 
themselves  a  good  many  foreigners  and  doubtless 
had  fallen  into  many  errors.  The  new  reformation 
was  complete  and  explicit  and  the  temple  was  re- 
built. The  people  were  content  with  the  ruins  of 
the  old  temple  for  such  services  as  were  held  until 
they  were  stirred  by  the  preaching  of  Haggai  and 
Zachariah,  who  accused  them  of  caring  more  for 
their  own  homes  than  for  the  House  of  God.  We 
know  but  little  of  the  dimensions  or  structure  of 
the  second  temple  and  it  was  doubtless  built  along 
the  lines  of  the  temple  of  Solomon,  but  it  was  a 
small  building  without  ornament,  and  there  was 
an  altar  of  unhewn  stones  instead  of  the  great  altar 
of  Solomon.  There  were  some  old  men  who  had 
seen  the  former  temple  and  they  were  moved  to 
tears  at  the  dedication  of  the  new  one  (Ezra  iii.  12). 
We  learn  from  i  Maccabees  that  there  was  an  Inner 
court  in  which  the  altar  was  placed  to  which  the 
laity  had  access,  and  Josephus  informs  us  that  the 
high  priest  Janneus  built  about  it  a  wooden  in- 
closure.     We  are  also  informed  that  there  was  a 


136  RELIGION   IN   THE    AIAKING 

Holy  of  Holies  and  in  the  Holy  Place  a  table  of 
show-bread  and  an  altar  of  incense.  Ezekiel  gives 
us  a  law  of  exclusion  and  insists  that  the  inner 
court  should  be  alone  for  the  Jews.  "Thou  shalt 
say  to  the  house  of  Israel,  Thus  saith  the  Lord 
Jehovah,  O  ye  house  of  Israel,  let  it  suffice  you  of 
all  your  abominations  in  that  ye  have  brought  in 
foreigners  uncircumcised  in  heart  and  uncircum- 
cised  in  flesh  to  be  in  my  sanctuary  to  profane  it, 
even  my  house"  (Ezek.  xliv.  7). 

The  second  temple  suffered  as  did  the  first  from 
foreign  invasion.  The  great  revolt  and  the  hero- 
isms of  the  Maccabees  followed  upon  the  robbery 
of  the  temple  and  the  desecration  of  its  altar.  Judas 
Maccabeus  is  said  to  have  so  fortified  the  temple 
that  it  became  the  fortress  of  Jerusalem.  The 
Roman  generals,  Pompey  and  Crassus,  captured 
and  plundered  it,  but  it  had  served  its  purpose  as 
the  home  of  the  new  Judaism  which  had  succeeded 
to  that  of  Moses  and  the  prophets. 

The  temple  built  by  Herod  which  succeeded  the 
temple  of  the  Exiles  is  described  at  some  length  by 
Josephus.  The  entire  temple  area  was  surrounded 
by  a  wall  along  which  were  porticos  supported  by 
four  rows  of  Corinthian  columns  of  white  marble 
richly  carved.  The  court  itself  was  paved  with 
mosaic.     The  porches  and  the  arches  of  this  outer 


SACRED    PLACES 


137 


court  were  not  regarded  as  strictly  sacred.  A  plat- 
form arose  fifteen  cubits  above  the  outer  court, 
from  which  fourteen  steps  led  to  a  narrow  terrace 
and  then  five  steps  more  from  the  terrace  to  the 
gate  of  the  inner  court.  A  wall  ran  around  the 
whole  of  the  inner  court  beneath  the  steps,  and  on 
it  were  placed  tablets  forbidding  any  man  not  a 
Jew  to  cross  the  threshold.  One  of  these  tablets 
discovered  after  the  lapse  of  many  centuries  may 
now  be  seen  at  the  museum  in  Constantinople.  At 
the  top  of  the  steps  there  was  a  wall  rising  nearly 
twenty  feet  surrounding  the  inner  court.  A  cross 
wall  within  the  inner  court  from  north  to  south 
gave  an  outer  space  for  women,  but  the  use  of  the 
temple  buildings  proper  was  for  men.  The  gates 
had  double  doors  covered  with  silver  and  gold. 
The  great  gate  to  the  east  is  said  to  have  been  forty 
cubits  broad  and  fifty  cubits  high.  Within  the 
inner  court  there  was  still,  separated  from  the  rest 
of  it,  another  corridor  surrounded  by  a  breastwork 
of  stone.  This  was  the  court  for  the  priests.  From 
this  court  twelve  steps  led  to  the  level  of  the  temple 
proper.  The  ground  floor  and  the  dimensions  of 
the  building  are  said  to  have  been  the  same  as  in 
Solomon's  temple.  When  the  city  was  captured, 
it  was  discovered  that  though  there  was  a  Holy  of 
Holies  in  the  temple  separated  by  a  costly  curtain 


138  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

of  Babylonian  workmanship  made  of  purple  and 
scarlet  and  hyacinth,  colors  to  symbolize  the  uni- 
verse, the  place  itself  was  quite  empty,  as  though  it 
were  some  inner  home  of  prayer  that  might  have 
belonged  to  the  great  mosque  itself  w^hich  has  suc- 
ceeded the  temple.  Above  the  gates  was  ornamen- 
tation of  golden  vines  and  grape  clusters.  The 
temple  had  an  upper  story  of  the  same  dimensions 
as  the  lower.  The  eastern  front  of  the  temple  was 
the  significant  part  of  it.  According  to  Josephus, 
the  porch  was  one  hundred  cubits  wide  and  one 
hundred  cubits  high  with  a  gateway  no  less  than 
seventy  cubits  high  and  twenty  cubits  broad. 
Above  this  gate  was  placed  a  golden  eagle  and  the 
name  of  Agrlppa.  East  from  the  porch  stood  the 
altar  of  burnt-offering  made  of  unhewn  stone.  In 
the  southwest  corner  there  was  a  channel  for  drain- 
ing the  sewage  into  the  Kidron.  Twenty  rings 
were  in  the  ground  for  tying  the  animals  to  be 
dedicated  in  sacrifice.  Cedar  beams  rested  upon  eight 
pillars  of  marble  for  hanging  the  carcasses  of  the 
animals  slain  and  there  were  eight  marble  tables  to 
prepare  the  flesh.  This  temple  required  many  years 
for  its  building  and  was  doubtless  the  most  splendid 
temple  that  the  Hebrew  people  had  ever  possessed. 
We  have  seen  the  development  of  the  place  of 
worship    from    any    chance    spot    sanctified    by    a 


SACRED    PLACES  139 

dream,  or  some  special  event,  we  have  noted  the 
growth  of  sanctities  about  a  place  where  a  wan- 
derer sleeps  in  his  chance  journey,  or  where  a  tent 
is  pitched  gathers  to  itself  in  time  by  other  events 
and  other  interests  an  increasing  value,  and  even 
though  we  think  as  some  do  that  Bethel,  Gilgal, 
Shechem.and  other  holy  places  were  inherited  from 
the  inhabitants  of  the  land,  it  still  remains  that  with 
every  new  memory  there  came  an  added  cause  for 
devotion  until  Israel  had  its  holy  cities  just  as 
India,  Egypt,  or  Greece. 

After  the  time  of  David,  Jerusalem  became  pre- 
eminently the  holy  city,  though  sacrifice  was  still 
offered  in  other  places.  The  new  temple  of  Solomon 
joined  royalty  with  religion,  and  from  that  day  for- 
ward Jerusalem  increased  In  rank.  The  reforms  of 
Josiah  and  Hezekiah  sought  to  make  effective  the 
doctrine  based  upon  Deuteronomy  that  only  in  one 
place  was  the  name  of  Jehovah  to  be  found  and 
sacrifice  offered.  This  doctrine  was  framed  and 
completed  by  the  returning  exiles  who  established 
the  second  temple  where  the  priest  and  the  Levitical 
law  had  full  sway.  How  complete  this  victory  of 
the  priests  was,  may  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  when  It 
was  replaced  under  Herod  by  a  third  temple  stand- 
ing at  the  time  of  the  opening  of  the  Christian  era, 
the  masons  and  carpenters  who  toiled  upon  it  were 


140  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

taken  from  the  priestly  families,  so  that  no  pro- 
fane hand  might  even  have  part  in  the  building. 
Whether  the  story  be  true  or  not,  the  persistence 
of  the  tradition  shows  how  effective  was  the 
priestly  control. 

THE   SYNAGOGUE 

With  the  second  temple  and  the  priestly  control 
which  it  indicated,  the  voice  of  the  prophet  seems 
to  have  been  forever  hushed,  but  it  was  not  so. 
The  prophetic  spirit  never  quite  vanishes  from 
the  souls  of  men  and  always  finds  for  itself  some 
means  of  communication.  Among  the  returning 
exiles  that  place  was  the  synagogue.  Primarily, 
the  synagogue  is  the  title  of  a  local  community 
with  either  religious  or  civil  jurisdiction  and  some- 
times with  both.  More  narrowly,  it  came  to  mean 
the  building  in  which  the  assembly  met.  Perhaps 
during  the  Exile  synagogues  were  organized  both 
in  Babylon  and  in  Palestine,  but  they  certainly 
began  soon  after  the  return.  Jewish  communities 
outside  of  Jerusalem  needed  some  opportunity  for 
developing  the  social  forms  of  religion  besides 
the  occasional  ones  when  they  made  their  pil- 
grimages to  Jerusalem.  The  synagogue  became 
an  institution  of  discipline  and  control  in  the  civil 
life  of  the  community  as  well  as  in  its  religious  life, 
and   to  be   excommunicated    from   the   synagogue 


SACRED    PLACES 


141 


was  as  much  dreaded  by  a  pious  Jew  as  banish- 
ment from  the  altars  of  his  religion  was  feared  by 
medieval  kings.  The  council  of  elders  was  the 
ruling  body,  consisting  of  twenty- three  members  in 
the  larger  towns  and  of  seven  members  in  the 
smaller  communities.  Their  methods  of  punish- 
ment were  more  than  excommunication.  They  had 
the  power  of  scourging  and,  in  the  earlier  days, 
are  said  to  have  even  condemned  men  to  death. 
Instead  of  permanent  excommunication,  for  light 
offenses  the  culprit  was  excluded  from  the  syna- 
gogue for  a  few  days.  The  chief  furniture  of  the 
synagogue  was  a  chest  containing  the  scroll  of  the 
Law.  The  functions  of  the  synagogue  were  teach- 
ing the  Law  and  worship,  and  it  was  also  a  place 
for  children  to  attend  school.  Instruction  seems  to 
have  preceded  worship  in  rank  of  function  in  the 
synagogue.  After  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  the 
synagogue  came  more  and  more  into  prominence 
not  only  in  Babylon  and  Egypt,  but  throughout  the 
Dispersion.  The  service  consisted  in  call  to  wor- 
ship, prayer,  reading  from  the  Law,  reading  from 
the  prophets,  the  exposition  and  the  benediction. 
Any  layman  might  officiate  in  the  service,  and  dif- 
ferent persons  took  different  parts.  When  the 
temple  was  destroyed,  the  holy  fires  died  out  and 
the  sacred  csn^^'lestick  no  longer  gave  its  light,  the 


142  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

synagogue  survived  all  the  wreck  of  the  years  and 
essentially  lives  to-day  as  the  home  of  Jewish 
worship. 

Institutions  are  the  expression  of  the  social  Hfe, 
but,  meantime,  the  essential  spirit  is  in  the  hearts 
of  men.  It  is  not  content  with  ancient  dwelling 
places.  The  spirit  of  the  reformer  is  something 
more  than  a  spirit  of  protest.  It  is  a  demand  for 
the  fresh  expression  of  abiding  life  and  St.  Francis 
and  St.  Bernard  within  the  bosom  of  the  Roman 
Church  were  as  truly  reformers  as  Martin  Luther 
or  John  Calvin.  Buddha  and  Confucius  w^ere  re- 
formers. The  final  fact  is  that  the  progressive  man 
assures  himself  of  new  revelations  and  exhibits  his 
treasures  under  new  forms  of  thought  and  worship. 


CHAPTER  IX 
SACRED  SERVICES 

EARLY    SACRIFICES 

It  is  probable  that  prayer  preceded  sacrifice,  but 
it  was  not  prayer  in  liturgical  form.  Doubtless 
prayer  was  instinctive  to  the  men  who  became 
dimly  conscious  of  supernatural  powers  that  af- 
fected the  fortunes  of  human  lives.  In  times  of 
danger  or  of  need  heart-cries  from  the  child-man 
were  flung  forth  just  as  a  little  child  now  instinct- 
ively appeals  to  its  mother. 

It  was  a  long  time  before  the  social  significance 
of  religious  service  took  on  any  form  of  ritual  or 
of  psalm. 

The  development  of  the  institution  of  sacrifice  is 
the  important  matter  at  the  foundation  of  the 
Hebrew  social  religious  life.  It  would  be  a  mis- 
take, however,  to  suppose  that  sacrifice  was  a  thing 
peculiar  to  the  Hebrew  people.  It  has  been  as 
widespread  as  the  race  and  its  facts  fall  into  the 
order  of  historic  unfolding  just  as  do  all  the  other 
institutions  of  men.  Ancestor  worshipers  and  na- 
ture worshipers  alike  offer  sacrifices.     It  has  been 

143 


144  RELIGION   IN    THE    MAKING 

suggested  that  they  were  regarded  as  common  meals 
between  the  clan  god  and  his  own  people.  There 
seems  to  have  been  an  instinctive  union  with  the 
sacred  animal  who  is  partaken  of  as  being  in  pos- 
session of  the  common  life  of  the  man  and  of  their 
god.  The  gods  are  conceived  as  hungry  and  need- 
ing food.  Sacrifice  is  a  common  meal  between  all 
the  members  of  the  clan  as  well  as  between  the 
men  and  their  god.  It  renews  the  bond  of  life 
between  them  all  to  thus  eat  together.  The  basis 
of  the  Semitic  clan  was  always  kinship;  primarily, 
by  actual  descent  and  then  including  also  those 
adopted  into  the  clan  by  suitable  rites.  The  way  in 
which  the  god  partook  of  his  food  differed  among 
different  peoples.*  Sometimes  his  share  was  left 
to  be  eaten  by  wild  animals  who  lurked  near  the 
altar.  It  was  thought  that  the  blood  was  the  life, 
and  this  was  poured  out  upon  the  sacred  stone  for 
divine  use.  Burnt-oft'erings  came  in  as  a  tribute  to 
the  more  subtle  idea  that  the  gods  would  not  eat 
crude  flesh  but  were  pleased  to  have  the  fragrant 
smoke  as  a  means  of  refreshment.  A  spring  festival 
was  very  widespread.  Pastoral  peoples  had  their 
chief  religious  rites  at  the  season  when  the  flocks 
bore  their  young,  and  agricultural  people  not  only 
recognized  the  seed-time  and  sought  a  blessing  from 
the  gods  of  the  sun   and  the  rain,  but  they  also 


SACRED    SERVICES  145 

remembered  their  obligation  when  harvests  were 
reaped  and  the  vintage  was  gathered.  Animal  food 
was  not  common  among  early  men.  Family  meals, 
as  we  understand  them,  were  of  course  unknown. 
So  it  turned  out  among  many  tribes  that  their 
slaughter  of  an  animal  from  the  flocks  was  a  reli- 
gious service  and  the  clan  gathered  for  the  common 
meal  while  the  god  received  his  share.  Out  of 
these  simpler  rites  grew  larger  festivals.  A  more 
abundant  wealth  brought  more  frequent  sacrifices. 
These  became  a  joyous  religious  gathering  of  the 
old  time,  full  of  cheer  and  merry-making.  The 
more  somber  forms  of  sacrifice  among  all  nations 
seem  to  belong  to  their  later  development.  These 
were  accented  among  the  Hebrews  at  the  time 
when  the  faith  that  material  good  was  the  chief 
blessing  from  Jehovah  had  broken  down  under  the 
nation's  calamities. 

Fixed  times,  places,  and  methods  for  sacrifices 
in  the  nature  of  the  case  were  of  slow  development. 
An  exact  and  complicated  ritual  would  be  im- 
possible to  primitive  men.  It  is  a  thing  that  must 
grow.  It  would  be  influenced  by  the  occupation  of 
the  people,  as  well  as  by  the  size  of  the  social 
group,  the  nature  of  the  country  in  which  they 
lived,  and  the  degree  of  their  religious  unfolding. 
If  the  study  of  the  development  of  the  priesthood 
10 


146  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

is  well  founded,  it  would  be  expected  that  the 
development  of  sacrifice  would  have  a  similar  his- 
tory. Variety  in  worship,  therefore,  must  result 
from  the  variety  of  culture  among  different  ages 
and  peoples.  But  since  man  is  man,  there  is  also 
a  fundamental  unity.  There  is,  first  of  all,  an  effort 
for  communion  with  the  unseen  powers.  The  needy 
man  would  bring  them  near;  he  would  serve  his 
god  with  what  is  precious  to  himself.  But  this 
is  not  all.  There  is  a  sense  of  danger  which  falls 
like  a  shadow  upon  the  craven  human  heart,  and  as 
his  conscience  becomes  more  and  more  awakened, 
there  is  also  a  sense  of  the  awful  problem  of  evil. 
In  all  the  broken  fragments  of  primitive  faiths 
which  have  come  to  us  in  the  bewildering  multi- 
tude of  human  rituals  and  altars,  in  the  many  cults 
extending  from  the  rude  worship  of  the  fetich  to 
the  open-eyed  vision  of  the  highest  seer,  all  lines 
converge  for  the  expression  of  one  supreme  aspira- 
tion :  To  be  rid  of  evil  and  to  find  peace  for  the 
soul.  In  this  universal  experience  the  history  of 
the  Bible  exhibits  a  definite  participation,  and  in 
the  course  of  its  history  there  will  be  seen  many 
traces  of  additions  and  changes  besides  the  normal 
changes  which  occur  In  the  transition  from  the  clan 
group  to  the  developed  nation. 

The  story  of  Abel  who  offered  from  his  flocks 


SACRED    SERVICES  147 

and  of  Cain  who  brought  the  fruits  of  the  earth, 
brings  out  an  antagonism  that  hes  in  the  nature  of 
the  case.  The  story  is  with  the  same  class  of  facts 
that  met  Zarathustra;  and  Darmesteter,  the  trans- 
lator of  the  Zend-Avesta,  suggests  that  the  fruits  of 
the  earth  is  the  oldest  form  of  sacrifice.  There 
seem  to  have  been  two  rival  sects  and  Zarathustra 
was  able  to  bring  them  together.  But  besides  the 
offerings  of  animals  represented  by  Abel,  the 
developed  system  of  the  Hebrew  also  included  obla- 
tions of  grain,  meal,  bread,  and  oil,  so  that  Cain 
and  Abel,  quarreling  at  the  beginning,  find  them- 
selves reconciled  in  the  developed  form  of  worship. 

The  victory  of  Abel  seems  to  have  continued  as 
far  as  we  can  judge,  for  Noah  is  described  as  offer- 
ing burnt-offerings  to  the  Lord  of  every  clean  beast 
and  of  every  clean  bird.  On  the  other  hand,  when 
Jacob  was  on  his  journey  he  poured  oil  upon  the 
pillar  as  an  accompaniment  to  his  prayer. 

References  to  sacrifice  are  scant  in  Genesis, 
though  feasts  with  the  angels  of  the  Lord  in  which 
Abraham  was  the  host  must  be  regarded  as  essen- 
tially the  same  as  the  primitive  Semitic  sacrifice, 
only  in  this  case  the  divine  being  came  in  visible 
form  and  is  described  as  eating  the  flesh  that  was 
set  before  Him.  The  history  of  the  patriarchal 
age  recognizes  that  the  ritual  of  sacrifice  was  a 


148  RELIGION    IN    THE    MAKING 

development.  There  are  no  prescriptions  and  no 
ritual  of  time  or  place.  Here  at  least  we  are  upon 
sure  ground. 

Israel  in  Egypt  is  described  as  having  substan- 
tially adopted  the  religion  of  his  masters.  Such  is 
the  habit  of  slaves,  if  the  relation  continues  long; 
but  when  Moses  came  down  into  Egypt  he  is 
reported  as  coming  to  them  in  the  name  of  the 
God  of  their  fathers,  the  Jehovah  of  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  order  to  recall  them  to  a  his- 
toric faith  and  to  quicken  in  them  the  sense  of  sep- 
aration from  the  Egyptians.  The  happy  phrase  of 
Professor  Giddings,  ''consciousness  of  kind,"  is  per- 
haps never  so  applicable  as  in  the  case  of  oneness 
of  religious  faith  and  observance.  That  is  a  con- 
sciousness in  which  ranges  earth  and  heaven,  time 
and  eternity.  At  the  bidding  of  Jehovah,  Moses 
says,  "Let  my  people  go  that  they  may  serve  me." 
In  further  colloquy  with  Pharaoh,  Moses  said, 
"Thou  must  also  give  into  our  hand  sacrifices  and 
burnt-ofiferings  that  we  may  sacrifice  unto  Jehovah 
our  God,"  and  he  demanded  all  the  cattle  because 
"we  know  not  with  what  we  must  serve  Jehovah 
until  we  come  thither."  The  statement  in  the  story 
that  they  must  go  three  days'  journey  out  of  Egypt 
in  order  to  worship  their  God  is  suggestive  of  the 
need  of  a  new  place  in  order  to  restore  the  old 


SACRED    SERVICES 


149 


religion.  The  duel  between  Jehovah  of  the  patri- 
archs and  the  gods  of  Pharaoh  closes  in  the  midst 
of  direful  plagues  in  which  Egypt  is  defeated. 
Whether  the  blood  upon  the  lintel  that  marked  the 
Hebrew  houses  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  limitation  in 
the  mind  of  Moses  as  to  whether  God  knew  in  what 
houses  the  Hebrews  lived,  may  be  doubted.  It  is 
more  likely  that  it  was  a  part  of  the  service  itself, 
the  offering  of  blood.  The  three  days'  journey 
came  and  went,  but  there  is  no  account  given  of  any 
sacrifices  to  fill  up  the  expectation  upon  which  the 
exodus  was  based.  Much  as  we  have  of  laws  and 
ordinances  respecting  sacrifice,  in  the  documents 
containing  the  history  of  the  wanderings  we  have 
very  little  notice  of  such  acts  of  worship.  Amos 
distinctly  says  that  there  were  no  sacrifices  offered 
during  the  forty  years  in  the  wilderness.  It  is  prob- 
able that  he  means  that  such  services  were  irreg- 
ular. Jethro,  father-in-law  of  Moses,  and  priest  of 
Midian,  celebrated  worship  as  the  religious  host  of 
the  leaders  of  the  people  (Ex.  xviii.  i).  It  was  cer- 
tainly irregular  that  Moses  and  Aaron  should  par- 
take of  a  burnt-offering  sacrificed  to  Jehovah  by  one 
who  was  not  a  member  of  any  of  the  twelve  tribes. 
To  sum  up  thus  far:  Few  notices  are  found  in 
the  stories  of  the  patriarchs  that  refer  to  sacrifices, 
and   these   do   not    indicate   any    developed   order. 


I50  RELIGION   IN   THE    MAKING 

Such  historic  facts  as  we  have  with  respect  to  the 
wanderings  in  the  wilderness  leave  us  in  precisely 
the  same  position  with  respect  to  that  period.  The 
promised  land  is  entered  without  the  ritual  law 
being  in  operation.  According  to  the  Book  of 
Joshua,  circumcision  was  not  practised  while  in  the 
wilderness  and  after  the  circumcision  the  Passover 
was  kept  in  the  Plains  of  Jericho.  This  seems  to 
reenforce  the  statement  of  Amos,  otherwise  unsup- 
ported, save  by  the  silences  of  the  narrative.  If 
sacrifices  had  been  developed,  or  important  as  part 
of  the  daily  life  of  the  Hebrews,  it  seems  certain 
that  some  account  would  have  been  preserved  in 
the  stones  of  the  wanderings. 

We  come,  therefore,  once  more  to  the  beginnings 
of  the  nation,  and  here  it  would  be  expected  that  a 
story  of  the  development  of  sacrifice  similar  to  the 
rise  of  the  priesthood  would  be  indicated.  After 
their  victory  over  their  old  enemies,  the  Amalekites, 
among  the  spoils  of  war  Saul  declared  to  Samuel, 
"The  people  spared  the  best  of  the  sheep  and  of 
the  oxen  to  sacrifice  unto  Jehovah,  thy  God."  It 
is  true  that  Samuel  very  much  disapproved  of  this 
performance,  for  he  says  that  Jehovah  commanded 
that  there  should  be  no  spoil  but  that  the  Amale- 
kites should  be  utterly  consumed.  However  this 
r!iay  be,  the  celebration  of  victory  by  sacrifice  and 


SACRED   SERVICES  151 

the  offerings  before  their  gods  of  the  spoils  of 
war,  is  quite  a  universal  fact  in  religious  history. 
But  there  is  a  significant  note  in  this  story  which 
must  not  be  passed  by.  It  is  the  first  glimpse  we 
have  into  a  higher  moral  order  as  the  finest  fruit  of 
religion.  Saul  and  his  people  had  disobeyed.  This 
was  the  worst  of  all  errors.  No  sacrifice  could 
make  it  good,  for  the  prophet-priest  cries  out, 
''Hath  Jehovah  as  great  delight  in  burnt-offerings 
and  sacrifices  as  in  obeying  the  voice  of  Jehovah? 
Behold,  to  obey  is  better  than  sacrifice  and  to 
hearken  than  the  fat  of  rams"  (i  Sam.  xv.). 

This  doctrine  of  the  spoils  of  war  produces  a 
cloud  of  witnesses  as  to  the  nature  of  religious 
worship.  It  is  probable  that  the  cannibal  instinct 
had  been  more  widespread  than  some  anthropolo- 
gists suppose.  An  enemy  slain  in  battle  often  sus- 
tained with  his  flesh  the  strength  of  the  living. 
Religious  rites  often  accompanied  the  sacrifice  of 
captives.  This  brings  us  to  the  question  of  human 
sacrifices  among  the  Hebrews.  A  number  of 
notices  are  found  among  the  prophets  Indicating 
that  in  their  idolatries  the  Hebrews  practised  the 
sacrifice  of  their  sons  and  daughters.  Perhaps  only 
once,  and  that  In  the  prophet  Micah,  Is  there  an 
Intimation  that  human  sacrifice  might  have  been 
practised  In  the  worship  of  Jehovah.    "Shall  I  give 


152  RELIGION    IN    THE    MAKING 

my  first-born  for  my  transgression;  the  fruit  of 
my  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul?"  In  the  days  of 
Ahab  it  is  said  that  Hiel  the  Bethehte  built  Jericho. 
*'He  laid  the  foundation  thereof  with  the  loss  of 
Abiram  his  first-born,  and  set  up  the  gates  thereof 
with  the  loss  of  his  youngest  son  Segub"  (i  Kings 
xvi.  34).  Joshua,  indeed,  had  cursed  the  man  that 
should  rebuild  the  stricken  city  of  Jericho  with  the 
loss  of  the  eldest  and  the  youngest  sons,  but  there 
are  not  wanting  those  who  interpret  the  case  of 
Hiel  as  a  human  sacrifice  to  further  his  ambitions. 
But  we  may  believe  that  Hiel  was  a  Baal  worshiper. 
The  classical  passage  in  the  early  period  referring 
to  human  sacrifice  is  the  case  of  Jephthah.  This 
mighty  man  of  valor,  like  William  the  Conqueror, 
was  of  doubtful  birth,  but  nevertheless,  when  his 
people  were  in  trouble  they  called  upon  him  to  fight 
as  their  leader  against  the  children  of  Ammon. 
Byron  has  made  a  poem  of  the  hero,  but  the  ac- 
count in  the  record  is  very  explicit:  "And  Jeph- 
thah vowed  a  vow  unto  Jehovah  and  said,  If  thou 
wilt  indeed  deliver  the  children  of  Ammon  into  my 
hand,  then  it  shall  be  that  whatsoever  cometh  forth 
from  the  doors  of  my  house  to  meet  me  when  I 
return  in  peace  from  the  children  of  Ammon,  it 
shall  be  Jehovah's,  and  I  will  offer  it  up  for  a 
burnt-offering."     This  he  said  when  the  spirit  of 


SACRED    SERVICES  153 

Jehovah  was  upon  him.  The  hosts  of  Jephthah 
entered  into  the  battle  and  Jehovah  deHvered  their 
enemies  into  his  hand.  The  outcome  of  the  story 
is,  "And  Jephthah  came  to  Mizpah  unto  his  house, 
and  behold  his  daughter  came  out  to  meet  him  with 
timbrels  and  with  dances.  And  she  was  his  only 
child.  Besides  her  he  had  neither  son  nor  daugh- 
ter. And  it  came  to  pass  when  he  saw  her  that  he 
rent  his  clothes  and  said  Alas !  my  daughter,  thou 
hast  brought  me  very  low  and  thou  art  one  of  them 
that  trouble  me  for  I  have  opened  my  mouth  unto 
Jehovah  and  I  cannot  go  back."  Two  months  she 
wailed  with  her  companions  upon  the  mountains, 
and  when  she  returned  unto  her  father's  house, 
''He  did  with  her  according  to  his  vow  which  he 
had  vowed." 

This  story  would  seem  incredible  and  the  modern 
reader  could  scarcely  believe  it  true,  did  we  not 
have  an  equally  celebrated  story,  foundation  of 
many  a  drama  in  both  ancient  and  modern  times. 
Agamemnon,  according  to  the  Greek  story,  had 
angered  the  goddess  Artemis,  and  the  holy  oracle 
declared  that  the  death  of  his  daughter  Iphlgenia 
was  the  only  means  of  propitiation.  The  daughter 
was  consecrated  In  order  that  the  Greek  fleet  might 
sail  against  Troy.  There  are  several  forms  of  the 
story,  but  one  of  them  is  that  the  goddess  carried 


154  RELIGION   IN   THE    MAKING 

her  away  in  a  cloud  to  Taurus  and  a  stag  was  sub- 
stituted for  her  in  the  sacrifice.  We  have  here  an 
ahiiost  exact  parallel  of  Abraham  offering  up  Isaac. 
Iphigenia  having  become  a  priestess  at  Taurus, 
afterward  saved  her  brother  from  being  put  to 
death  as  a  stranger.  While  there  is  a  great  resem- 
blance between  the  stories,  there  is  one  very  marked 
dift'erence.  In  the  Greek  story  the  king's  daughter 
is  a  propitiation  for  the  anger  of  the  goddess,  but 
in  the  Hebrew  story  there  is  no  idea  of  propitiation. 
The  sacrifice  is  a  thank-offering  in  celebration  of 
a  victory  which  had  been  given  as  a  divine  bounty. 
There  is  a  pathetic  story  told  of  the  hanging  of 
seven  sons  of  Saul,  men  hung  unto  the  Lord,  so 
the  story  reads,  that  a  famine  might  be  stayed  in 
Israel.  The  famine  had  come  on  account  of  the 
sin  of  Saul,  who  had  not  kept  faith  with  some  sons 
of  Gibeon.  Though  Saul  was  dead,  yet  his  sin 
lingered  in  blighted  fields  and  withered  pastures. 
The  one  person  in  the  story  that  makes  a  beautiful 
figure  is  Rizpah,  the  daughter  of  Saul,  who  watched 
over  the  hanging  bodies  that  the  birds  of  the  air 
might  not  tear  them  by  day  nor  the  beasts  of  the 
field  glut  their  hunger  by  night,  and  this  she  did 
until  at  last  the  bodies  were  taken  down  by  the 
king's  o'rder  and  a  family  sepulchre  was  made  for 
the  house  of  Saul  (2  Sam.  xxi). 


SACRED    SERVICES  155 

The  story  would  be  comparatively  simple  as  a 
means  by  which  the  new  king  rid  himself  of  possible 
rivals  in  the  future  were  it  not  for  the  saying,  "And 
after  that  God  was  entreated  for  the  land."  But 
the  beautiful  figure  of  Rizpah  quickens  the  imagi- 
nation like  that  of  Niobe,  who  stood  in  the  midst  of 
her  children  as  one  after  another  they  were  shot 
to  death  by  the  arrows  of  Apollo  and  Artemis. 
Human  sacrifices  were  doubtless  rare.  There  is 
no  remote  provision  for  them  in  the  legislation,  and 
they  are  essentially  foreign  to  the  religion  of 
Israel. 

The  social  and  informal  character  of  sacrifice  in 
this  period  of  formation  is  disclosed  in  the  account 
of  the  sacrificial  meal  which  Samuel  prepared  for 
Saul  before  he  anointed  him  king.  The  special 
point  at  which  the  meat  became  religious  was  not 
the  manner  of  its  killing,  for  it  was  prepared  for 
food.  The  sacred  man  blessed  the  sacrifice  after 
it  was  ready  to  be  eaten,  and  the  cheerful  meal  to 
thirty  persons  in  the  guest  chamber  of  Samuel's 
rather  extensive  house  calls  to  mind  rather  the 
dinner  of  some  Saxon  baron  in  the  midst  of  his 
retainers  than  the  solemn  ritual  of  a  religious  serv- 
ice (i  Sam.  ix.).  It  is  very  Important  to  note  the 
joyous  character  of  these  early  feasts.  The  account 
of  the   "feast   of  Jehovah    from   year  to  year   in 


156  RELIGION   IN   THE    MAKING 

Shiloh"  seems  to  have  been  a  thanksgiving  for  the 
fruit  of  the  vine  and  was  not  preceded  by  any- 
solemn  self-condemnation;  rather  the  daughters  of 
Shiloh  came  out  to  dance  in  the  dances  which  were 
appointed,  and  then  it  was  that  the  sons  of  Benja- 
min seized  them,  each  man  a  wife.  It  is  a  pretty 
definite  parallel  to  the  famous  rape  of  the  Sabine 
women  by  which  the  men  of  Rome  founded  families. 
It  might  be  thought  that  one  of  these  stories  was 
borrowed  from  the  other,  were  it  not  for  the  fact 
that  just  such  seizures,  real  or  pretended,  are  the 
commonplaces  among  tribes  where  the  custom  re- 
quires that  they  make  marriages  outside  their  own 
ranks. 

When  Moses  came  back  to  the  camp  it  was  the 
tumult  of  the  dancing  of  the  people  that  made 
known  the  worship  of  the  golden  calf  before  the 
new  object  of  the  people's  reverence  was  visible. 
The  prophets  indicate  excesses  in  these  festivals 
of  a  gross  and  immoral  nature.  Isaiah  intimates 
that  both  priest  and  prophet  were  often  drunken, 
so  much  so  that  they  were  not  able  to  fulfil  the 
functions  of  their  office.  Hosea  gives  a  picture  of 
worship  that  recalls  the  most  horrible  things  that 
were  said  of  the  ancient  Phoenicians'  pollution  of 
their  temples. 


SACRED   SERVICES  157 

THE   RELIGION    OF   FASTING 

In  the  moral  discipline  of  religion  there  are  two 
chief  elements.  The  first  consists  in  the  question  of 
sharing  things  of  value  with  the  divine  powers. 
Through  long  processes  and  accompanied  by  the 
growth  of  new  conceptions  of  God  there  arises  a 
series  of  positive  obligations,  either  of  formal  wor- 
ship or  of  practical  conduct,  and  generally  of  both. 

The  other  side  of  religion  consists  In  Its  prohi- 
bitions. These  are  as  varied  In  number  and  form 
as  are  the  positive  duties.  The  teaching  of  Con- 
fucius has  more  to  say  about  the  positive  duties; 
the  religion  of  Buddha  gives  more  attention  to  the 
prohibitions.  But  some  degree  of  asceticism  be- 
longs to  all  human  faiths,  even  to  the  most  joyous 
forms  of  nature  worship.  As  religions  differ  from 
each  other,  so  does  the  same  religion  differ  In  the 
various  stages  of  its  development  In  the  proportion 
between  the  positive  and  the  negative  elements. 

Fasting,  degradation  In  clothing  (the  familiar 
sackcloth  and  ashes  of  the  Hebrew  tradition),  flagel- 
lations, and  mutilations  are  all  methods  that  have 
been  employed.  The  ascetic  elem.ent  was  not 
strongly  marked  In  the  Hebrew  religion,  but  that  it 
existed  must  be  noted,  and  something  must  be  said 
with  respect  to  Its  manifestations.  In  general,  the 
ascetic  element  Increased  as  time  went  on.     As  the 


158  RELIGION    IN    THE    MAKING 

family  and  the  clan  element  in  worship  was  de- 
graded by  the  development  of  the  central  worship, 
and  as  this  increased  in  pomp  and  dignity,  the 
simple  joyousness  of  the  primitive  feasts  passed 
away.  The  Puritan  idea  of  the  Sabbath  was  not 
ancient  in  Israel.  It  developed  after  the  Exile,  with 
increasing  number  and  definiteness  of  statutes  for 
its  observance  that  were  unknown  in  the  ancient 
law. 

The  value  of  fasting  is  one  of  the  matters  that 
may  be  briefly  discussed  as  an  illustration  of  the 
whole  subject.  After  the  shocking  crime  of  the 
children  of  Benjamin,  battle  raged  between  them 
and  the  tribes  of  Israel,  and  after  the  defeat  of  the 
day  the  children  of  Israel  wept  and  came  and  gath- 
ered at  Bethel  and  there  before  the  Lord  they  wept 
and  fasted  from  morning  until  evening  and  so  they 
turned  away  affliction  and  Jehovah  led  them  to 
victory  (Judges  xx.).  Saul  ordered  a  fast  from 
the  morning  until  the  even,  and  though  the  people 
of  Israel  were  distressed  on  account  of  the  com- 
mand, none  of  them  tasted  any  food  that  day. 
Both  of  these  cases  have  to  do  with  fasting  with 
reference  to  obtaining  the  divine  favor  in  battle. 
When  Saul  and  Jonathan  went  down  in  unsuccess- 
ful conflict  the  people  "mourned  and  wept  and 
fasted  until  even  for   Saul  and  for  Jonathan,  his 


SACRED    SERVICES 


159 


son,  and  for  the  people  of  the  Lord  and  for  the 
house  of  Israel,  because  they  were  fallen  by  the 
sword."  David  and  his  people  fasted  until  evening, 
but  the  men  of  Jabesh-Gilead,  more  devoted  to  the 
house  of  Saul,  buried  the  bodies  under  the  tamarisk 
tree  and  fasted  seven  days  (i  Sam.  xxxi.  13). 

When  Elijah  foretold  the  downfall  of  Ahab, 
though  this  mighty  man  had  never  been  celebrated 
for  his  piety,  yet  in  the  presence  of  common 
calamity,  ''It  came  to  pass  when  Ahab  heard  those 
words  he  rent  his  clothes  and  put  sackcloth  upon 
his  flesh  and  fasted  and  lay  in  sackcloth  and  went 
softly"  (i  Kings  xxi.  27). 

But  fasting  was  more  than  a  sign  of  mourning. 
There  are  some  notices  of  occasional  fasts  before 
the  offering  of  sacrifice  and  such  notable  fasts  as 
those  of  Moses  and  of  Elijah  with  reference  to  their 
prophetic  office.  Fasting  was  connected  with  re- 
pentance. Jeremiah  gives  an  account  of  a  national 
fast  before  the  Lord  for  all  the  people  of  Jerusalem 
and  its  surroundings  on  account  of  the  misfortunes 
that  had  overtaken  the  nation.  The  prophet  Joel 
declares  that  fasting,  weeping,  and  mourning  are 
to  be  connected  with  "turning  unto  the  Lord  of  the 
sinner  with  all  his  heart."  Other  national  fasts  for 
reasons  more  or  less  secular  are  recited,  as  Joel's 
account  of   one    when   the    locusts    came.      Ezra, 


i6o  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

Nehemiah,  and  Esther  all  led  the  people  to  absti- 
nence from  food.  There  seem  to  have  been  four 
great  public  fast  days  that  were  established,  though 
the  order  for  them  is  not  found  in  the  developed 
statutes  of  the  Bible.  The  fast  and  feast  of  Purim, 
based  on  the  Book  of  Esther,  a  comparatively  late 
observance,  is  still  celebrated  amiong  the  Jews.  It 
is  interesting  on  account  of  its  being  both  a  fast 
and  a  feast,  a  fast  because  of  the  counsel  of  Haman 
that  the  Jews  be  put  to  death,  and  a  feast  because 
of  the  Jews'  triumph  over  him.  This  is  probably  a 
sufficiently  full  account  of  the  observances  of  fast- 
ing, but  there  remains  to  be  mentioned  the  attitude 
of  the  prophets  toward  it.  Once  again  we  hear 
the  ethical  note  denying  the  spiritual  value  o£ 
external  observances.  It  is  the  regeneration  of 
the  soul  that  the  prophets  ask  for  rather  than  a 
mortification  of  the  flesh.  Says  Jeremiah:  "When 
they  fast  I  will  not  hear  their  cry.  I  will  consume 
them  by  the  sword  and  by  the  famine  and  by  the 
pestilence"  (Jer.  xiv.  12).  Isaiah  sees  the  futility  of 
the  fast  and  declares:  "Wherefore  have  we  fasted, 
say  they,  and  thou  seest  not.  Wherefore  have 
we  afflicted  our  soul  and  thou  takest  no  knowledge. 
Behold  in  the  day  of  your  fast  ye  find  your  own 
pleasure:  Behold  ye  fast  for  strife  and  contention 
and  to  smite  with  the  fist  of  wickedness :  ye  fast  not 


SACRED    SERVICES  j^j 

this  day  so  as  to  make  your  voice  to  be  heard  on 
high.  Is  such  a  fast  that  I  have  chosen?  A  day 
for  a  man  to  afflict  his  soul  ?  Is  it  to  bow  down  his 
head  as  a  rush  and  to  spread  sackcloth  and  ashes 
under  him?  Wilt  thou  call  this  a  fast  and  an 
acceptable  day  to  Jehovah?  Is  not  this  the  fast 
that  I  have  chosen?  to  loose  the  bonds  of  wicked- 
ness, to  undo  the  bands  of  the  yoke  and  to  let  the 
oppressed  go  free  ?  Is  it  not  to  deal  thy  bread  to 
the  hungry  and  that  thou  bring  the  poor  that  are 
cast  out  to  thy  house  ?  When  thou  seest  the  naked 
that  thou  cover  him ;  and  that  thou  hide  not  thyself 
from  thine  own  flesh?  Then  shall  thy  light  break 
forth  as  the  morning  and  thy  healing  shall  spring 
forth  speedily;  then  shalt  thou  call  and  Jehovah 
will  answer;  thou  shalt  cry  and  he  will  say  Here 
I  am"  (Isa.  Iviii.). 

It  is  the  great  familiar  voice  of  all  the  nobler 
teachers  and  sages  of  the  race.  Religious  observ- 
ances have,  indeed,  their  value,  but  that  value  must 
be  interpreted  not  by  priestly  ritual  and  special 
ceremonies.  They  are  not  to  be  used  as  shields  of 
comfort  against  the  wrath  of  an  angry  God,  but 
they  are  to  express  the  social  love  of  children  who 
bow  together  at  the  common  altars  of  their  Father. 
Once  again,  it  is  the  prophet  who  must  be  our  final 
leader  and  interpreter. 


II 


l62  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

RITUAL   OF   THE   TEMPLES 

Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  the  general 
law  that  ritual  becomes  more  complex  and  services 
more  numerous  as  the  social  group  which  practices 
them  becomes  larger  and  more  stable.  The  state- 
ment here  made  with  respect  to  religious  institu- 
tions is  of  course  the  same  in  fact  with  regard 
to  the  growth  of  all  law,  custom,  and  social 
organization. 

It  seems  well,  therefore,  to  give  some  account  of 
the  developed  order  of  the  Hebrew  ritual  at  this 
point  in  order  that  the  task  may  be  easier  in  mark- 
ing some  steps  in  its  growth.  As  the  temple  of 
Jerusalem  became  the  one  place  to  offer  sacrifices 
and  fell  entirely  under  the  control  of  the  priests,  it 
was  natural  that  the  services  should  become  more 
stately  and  more  ceremonial,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  less  vital  to  all  the  people.  From  the  ac- 
count of  Josephus  of  the  service  in  Herod's  temple, 
we  learn  that  there  were  twenty  thousand  priests 
who  were  divided  into  twenty-four  courses  and 
each  course  was  responsible  for  the  daily  sacrifice 
for  one  week  at  a  time,  the  high  priest  only  appear- 
ing on  rare  occasions,  his  political  and  secular  re- 
sponsibilities being  too  great  to  allow  of  his  giving 
much  time  to  the  service  of  religion.  Instead  of 
following   the   order    of    Leviticus    that    the    high 


SACRED    SERVICES  163 

priest  should  himself  offer  the  meal  offering  every 
day,  the  rule  was  changed  and  it  was  thought  to 
be  enough  if  he  paid  for  the  meal. 

There  were  twenty-four  courses  of  Levites,  also, 
including  the  various  officers  from  musicians  to 
doorkeepers.  The  people  were  divided  into  twenty- 
four  courses  for  attendance  upon  the  services.  For 
each  week  the  proper  course  of  priests,  Levites  and 
people  must  be  represented.  It  will  be  noted  that 
the  division  of  labor  was  quite  considerable,  and 
that  it  really  only  required  two  weeks  in  the  year 
for  the  temple  service  and  if  any  of  the  people  were 
absent  from  the  city,  they  might  go  to  the  local 
synagogue  for  worship. 

It  was  necessary  to  have  a  pretty  complete  organ- 
ization of  the  temple  area  itself.  There  seem  to 
have  been  three  divisions  of  officers,  as  there  were 
head  officers  for  each  of  the  twenty-four  courses. 
The  first  division  of  officers  was  those  who  con- 
trolled the  stores,  the  furniture,  and  the  treasures; 
the  heads  of  all  these  divisions  were  priests.  Next 
there  were  officials  of  the  police  department,  who 
were  mostly  Levites,  and  were  guards  stationed  at 
night  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  Gen- 
tiles coming  in.  Finally,  there  were  special  officers 
for  the  orderly  guidance  of  the  public  worship. 
These  had  many  of  them  become  hereditary.    The 


l64  RELIGION    IN    THE   MAKING 

officiating  priests  were  divided  by  lot  into  certain 
classes  to  perform  given  duties.  These  lots  were 
presided  over  by  officers  apointed  for  the  pur- 
pose. There  was  an  officer  to  see  that  the  various 
kinds  of  offerings  were  prepared  and  other  officials 
were  engaged  in  making  show-bread  and  prepar- 
ing frankincense.  There  \vere  the  keepers  of  the 
priestly  garments,  a  guild  of  heralds,  and  a  guild 
of  musicians.  At  this  time  these  were  Levites. 
There  was  regular  vv'orship  every  day,  but  the  daily 
offering,  when  it  came  upon  the  Sabbath  or  upon 
festival  occasions,  changed  its  form  and  the  number 
of  offerings  was  increased.  Besides  the  offerings 
which  may  be  regarded  as  official,  there  were  many 
private  sacrifices  made  by  private  persons  without 
definite  precept  of  law  except  that  they  had  to  be 
prepared  and  offered  in  a  regular  manner. 

In  following  the  order  of  the  daily  w^orship  there 
are  three  things  noted.  First,  the  slaughter  and 
preparation  of  the  sacrifice:  second,  the  offering  of 
incense,  as  well  as  of  sacrifice  accompanied  by 
prayer ;  and  third,  praise  and  thanksgiving.  The 
priests  on  duty  slept  in  the  inner  court  just  outside 
the  temple.  They  arose  early,  took  their  baptismal 
bath,  divided  into  two  parties,  one  going  east  and 
the  other  west  with  lij^hted  torches,  and  when  they 
met  they  greeted  each  other  v/ith  "It  is  well ;  all  is 


SACRED    SERVICES  165 

well."  Having  completed  the  circuit  of  the  temple 
area,  they  went  to  the  Hall  of  the  Sanhedrin  where 
lots  were  cast  for  the  different  parts  of  the  serv- 
ices. The  first  priest  selected  bathed  his  hands  and 
feet  and  then  cleansed  the  ashes  from  the  altar  of 
sacrifice..  Other  priests  cleansed  the  surroundings 
from  debris  and  placed  wood  in  order  for  burning. 
While  this  was  going  on,  other  priests  were  en- 
gaged in  baking-  the  meal  offering  in  what  was 
known  as  the  Place  of  the  Pancake  Makers.  The 
second  company  of  priests  were  engaged  in  slaugh- 
tering the  victim.  When  the  first  rays  of  the  dawn 
lighted  up  the  heights  at  the  south  of  the  city,  the 
lamb  was  brought  forth  and  led  to  the  place  of 
slaughter,  and  the  ninety-three  sacred  vessels  were 
brought  from  the  utensil  cham.ber.  The  temple 
gates  were  then  opened  and  the  heralds  gave  three 
blasts  upon  the  silver  trumpets,  being  the  signal 
for  the  Levites  and  the  male  worshipers  in  the 
course  appointed  for  that  day  to  assemble.  The 
great  gates  of  the  Holy  Place  were  opened  and 
the  slaughter  took  place.  After  that  was  accom- 
plished, two  priests  entered  the  Holy  Place,  cleansed 
the  golden  altar  of  incense,  while  another  priest 
trimmed  and  relighted  the  lamps.  Six  pieces  of 
the  lamb  were  carried  by  six  priests  to  the  altar; 
seven   priests   brought   the    offering   of   flour   and 


l66  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

eight  priests  baked  the  meal-offering  while  it  re- 
quired nine  priests  to  bring  the  wine  and  drink- 
offering.  Then  back  to  the  Hall  of  Polished  Stone 
where  the  lots  were  first  cast,  and  there  was  a 
service  of  prayer.  The  three  great  sections  of  the 
law  which  were  to  be  repeated  by  every  Israelite 
every  day  were  then  spoken,  the  primary  one  be- 
ing, ''Hear,  O  Israel!  Jehovah  our  God  is  one 
Jehovah,"  with  the  verses  following  (Deut.  vi.  4-9, 
xi.  13-21).  The  ten  commandments  were  repeated 
and  the  benediction  was  given.  After  the  prayers 
and  blessing,  the  third  lot  determined  who  should 
offer  the  incense  and  the  fourth  lot  decided  who 
should  lay  the  parts  of  the  lamb  upon  the  altar. 

A  golden  saucer  which  was  covered  contained 
within  it  a  smaller  saucer  holding  the  incense.  An 
assistant  priest  brought  a  live  coal  from  the  great 
altar  outside,  which  he  emptied  into  a  golden  pan 
upon  the  altar  of  incense  within  the  Holy  Place. 
Going  Into  the  sanctuary  a  gong  Is  struck  to  notify 
the  priests  to  hasten  to  worship  and  the  Levites  to 
find  their  places  In  the  choir.  The  chief  of  the 
officiating  priests  Is  now  left  alone  within  the  Holy 
Place.  He  opens  the  covered  bowl,  takes  out  the 
saucer  containing  the  Incense  and  empties  It  upon 
the  live  coals.  The  incense  ascended  in  clouds  of 
smoke.     The  people   waiting  In  the  court  of  the 


SACRED    SERVICES 


167 


temple  when  they  saw  the  smoke  coming  out  of 
the  door  prostrated  themselves  upon  the  ground, 
spreading  out  their  hands  in  prayer.  The  smoke 
died  down,  and  the  priests  who  had  been  engaged 
in  the  Holy  Place  went  out  to  the  steps  of  the 
porch  and  with  uplifted  hands  pronounced  the  bene- 
diction. The  worship  closed  with  a  service  of 
praise.  Levites  with  instrument  and  voice  ren- 
dered the  psalm  of  the  day.  At  the  close  of  each 
section  of  the  psalm  a  body  of  priests  blew  three 
blasts  upon  silver  trumpets  while  the  people  bowed 
down  and  worshiped.  After  this  public  and  official 
service  was  over,  private  sacrifices  were  proceded 
with.  The  evening  service  was  nearly  a  repetition 
of  that  of  the  morning. 

There  were  many  special  religious  occasions  be- 
side the  seventh-day  observances  to  which  more 
particular  reference  is  made  elsewhere. 

There  were  three  great  festivals,  the  Passover, 
Pentecost,  and  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles.  They 
were  all  of  them  agricultural  festivals,  and  some 
have  argued  that  they  were  festivals  of  the  land  of 
Canaan  adopted  by  the  Hebrews  upon  their  arrival. 
There  is  no  doubt  at  all  that  the  festivals  have  local 
color  and  local  significance,  but  the  Passover  was 
a  modification  of  the  widespread  spring  festival, 
and  was  In  existence  In'  some  form  long  before  the 


t68  religion  in  the  making 

emigration  from  Egypt.  If  this  were  so,  very  wise 
was  it  of  Moses  as  a  sagacious  leader  to  rebaptize 
this  festival  with  new  meaning  and  consecrate  it  to 
the  special  recognition  of  Jehovah,  and  so  he  says, 
^'Remember  this  day  in  which  ye  came  out  from 
Egypt  out  of  the  house  of  bondage,  for  by  strength 
of  hand  the  Lord  brought  thee  forth  from  this 
place."  The  Passover  was  kept  in  memory  of  the 
deliverance  of  Israel's  first-born  from  the  plague' 
of  Egypt,  and  also  the  liberation  of  the  Hebrews 
from  the  Egyptian  bondage.  The  lamb  and  the 
unleavened  bread  were  the  chief  elements  of  the 
feast.  The  Hebrews  were  to  assemble  in  family 
groups  ready  for  the  impending  journey,  loins 
girded,  feet  shod,  staves  in  their  hands.  It  was  to 
be  a  roast  lamb  and  in  this  night  of  vigil  unto  the 
Lord  the  entire  lamb  was  to  be  eaten  and  if  any- 
thing was  left,  it  must  be  consumed  by  fire  (Ex. 
xii.).  The  completeness  enjoined  in  eating  the 
Passover  has  a  parallel  also  in  the  account  given  of 
the  festival  held  by  the  Arabs  in  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century  where  they  sacrificed  a  white  camel 
to  Venus  and  ate  it  all  during  the  night.  Here 
was  doubtless  a  similar  transformation,  only  these 
changes  were  marks  of  degeneration.  From  the 
beginning,  the  Passover  was  a  family  festival  as 
well  as  a  national  one. 


SACRED    SERVICES  169 

The  second  great  festival  was  that  of  Pentecost. 
It  was  essentially  a  harvest  festival.  Indeed  the 
harvest  festival  seems  to  have  lasted  for  fifty  days, 
counting  from  the  second  day  of  the  Passover,  and 
it  ends  with  the  great  festival  which  comes  with 
the  cutting  of  the  wheat,  the  last  of  the  cereals  to 
be  garnered.  It  was,  naturally,  a  joyous  festival, 
and  the  wave  loaves  were  to  be  brought  as  a  special 
offering,  but  also  accompanied  by  animal  sacrifices. 
The  place  of  Pentecost  as  a  nature  feast  is  very 
evident,  but  in  addition  to  this,  the  Jews  made  it  an 
occasion  for  the  celebration  of  the  giving  of  the 
Ten  Commandments. 

The  Feast  of  Tabernacles  is  the  third  great  feast 
and  celebrates  the  end  of  the  nature  year,  com- 
ing at  the  close  of  the  fruit  harvest.  Branches 
were  cut  from  palm  trees  and  from  the  willows  of 
the  brook,  there  were  processions  with  festival 
dances,  and  doubtless  in  the  earlier  days  the  occa- 
sion was  much  similar  to  the  wine  festivals  In  the 
German  Rhine  country.  The  later  significance  of 
the  festival  refers  it  to  a  celebration  of  the  days 
when  their  fathers  sojourned  in  the  wilderness  and 
dwelt  in  tents.  This  seven-day  holiday  was  re- 
garded sometimes  as  specially  to  be  observed  by 
living  in  booths  made  from  the  branches  of  the 
trees.    This  came  to  be  its  final  form.    There  were 


lyo  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

to  be  daily  burnt-offerings  with  proper  meal-offer- 
ings. In  the  famous  account  given  in  Nehemiah 
we  have  perhaps  the  most  definite  notice:  ''And 
they  found  written  in  the  law  how  that  Jehovah 
had  commanded  by  Moses  that  the  children  of  Is- 
rael should  dwell  in  booths  in  the  feast  of  the  sev- 
enth month,  and  that  they  should  publish  and  pro- 
claim in  all  their  cities  and  in  Jerusalem  saying,  Go 
forth  into  the  mount  and  fetch  olive  branches  and 
branches  of  wild  olives  and  myrtle  branches  and 
palm  branches,  and  branches  of  thick  trees  to  make 
booths  as  it  is  written.  So  the  people  went  forth 
and  brought  them  and  made  themselves  booths 
every  one  upon  the  roof  of  his  house  and  in  their 
courts  and  in  the  courts  of  the  house  of  God,  and 
in  the  broad  place  of  the  water  gate,  and  in  the 
broad  place  of  the  gate  of  Ephraim.  And  all  the 
assembly  of  them  that  were  come  again  out  of  the 
captivity  made  to  themselves  and  dwelt  in  the 
booths.  For  since  the  days  of  Joshua,  the  son  of 
Nun,  until  that  day  had  not  the  children  of  Israel 
done  so.  And  there  was  very  great  gladness" 
(Neh.  viii.  14-18).  Some  critics  have  supposed 
because  of  this  account  that  the  Feast  of  Taber- 
nacles was  entirely  post-exilic,  but  it  does  not  seem 
necessary  to  make  this  contention.  The  emphasis 
lies  upon  the  fact  that  it  had  not  been  celebrated 


SACRED   SERVICES  171 

theretofore  by  dwelling  for  a  week  in  booths,  a  duty 
enjoined  in  Leviticus,  and  an  operative  law  after 
the  Exile  but  nowhere  else. 

The  fundamental  significance  of  the  three  festi- 
vals would  indicate  that  in  some  form  or  other  they 
had  been  observed  from  very  early  times :  The  first 
when  the  flocks  began  to  multiply,  the  second  when 
the  grains  were  gathered,  and  the  third  a  final 
jubilee  of  the  wine  and  oil,  signifying  the  time  of 
the  orchard  and  the  vineyard. 

The  Second  Law  in  Deuteronomy  adds  the  direc- 
tion that  these  festivals  should  be  celebrated  at  the 
central  shrine,  so  the  law  came  to  be  that  three 
times  a  year  all  the  males  of  the  country  were  com- 
manded to  appear  before  the  Lord  in  Jerusalem. 
While  this  was  not  rigorously  observed,  it  was  at 
least  so  far  observed  as  to  give  the  festivals  very 
important  social  and  national  significance.  The 
effect  upon  the  world's  history  of  great  pilgrimages 
is  a  subject  that  some  one  should  adequately  deal 
with.  These  festivals  gave  a  sense  of  a  common 
religion  to  all  the  worshipers,  but  they  also  lent 
themselves  to  the  development  of  a  common  na- 
tional life.  One  religion  and  one  land  had  in  the 
three  great  festivals  an  emphasis  of  increasing 
power  and  value. 

In  the  great  days  the  men  of  Ephralm  and  the 


172  RELIGION   IN   THE  MAKING 

men  of  Judah  forgot  all  local  distinctions  in  the 
common  worship  at  the  central  shrine,  and  it  be- 
came a  consistent  expression  of  the  unity  of  the 
nation.  Jerusalem  with  its  services  became  more 
and  more  an  object  of  devotion.  A  late  psalm 
expresses  it : 

I  was  glad  when  they  said  unto  me 
Let  us  go  unto  the  house  of  Jehovah. 
Our  feet  are  standing  within  thy  gates,  O  Jerusalem, 
Jerusalem  that  are  builded  as   a  city  that   is   compact  to- 
gether whither  the  tribes  go  up 
Even  the  tribes  of  Jehovah 
Eor  an  ordinance  for  Israel. 
To  give  thanks  unto  the  name  of  Jehovah." 

It  seems  certain  that  the  Paschal  feast  was  very 
ancient.  It  belonged  to  a  shepherd  people.  The 
great  Shiloh  festival  was  a  yearly  thanksgiving 
after  the  vintage  (Judges  xxi.).  It  may  be  also 
noted  that  a  similar  festival  was  held  at  Shechem 
and  was  connected  with  heathen  festivities  (Judges 
ix.).  This  festival  assumed  a  national  character  at 
the  time  of  the  dedication  of  the  temple  and  all 
Israel  came,  a  great  assembly,  and  it  was  a  double 
festival,  "Seven  days  and  seven  days."  From  this 
happy  occasion  the  people  went  away  "joyful  and 
glad  of  heart  for  all  the  goodness  that  Jehovah  had 
showed  unto  David  his  servant  and  unto  Israel  his 
people"  (i  Kings  viii.). 


SACRED    SERVICES  173 

The  Feast  of  the  New  Moon  belonged  naturally 
to  the  shepherd  era  and  is  a  feast  of  quite  wide- 
spread observance.  It  became  at  length  recognized 
in  Israel  as  one  of  the  great  feasts,  especially  the 
one  held  in  the  seventh  month. 

The  Feast  of  Sheep  Shearing  was  one  that  was 
observed  in  the  pastoral  districts.  This  was  a 
local  feast,  but  the  dignity  of  it  can  be  seen  by  the 
fact  that  it  was  celebrated  on  one  occasion  by 
no  less  a  person  than  the  king's  son  Absalom 
(2  Sam.  xiii.  23). 

The  family  and  clan  festivals  gradually  died  out 
as  the  history  centralized  into  one  people,  but  that 
such  festivals  continued  to  a  comparatively  late 
date  we  know  because  David  earnestly  asked  leave 
to  go  to  Bethlehem,  "And  he  said,  let  me  go  I  pray 
thee,  for  our  family  have  a  sacrifice  in  the  city  and 
my  brother  he  hath  commanded  me  to  be  there." 
So  Jonathan  excused  to  his  father,  Saul,  the  absence 
from  his  table  of  the  man  who  was  to  be  his  succes- 
sor on  the  throne.  This  significant  statement  indi- 
cates that  at  this  time  there  was  nothing  like  a 
prescribed  and  legalized  national  sacrifice  for  it 
would  have  been  absurd  to  make  such  an  excuse  to 
Saul  in  a  matter  where  he  could  have  known  how 
false  were  the  statements. 

The  matter  of  atoning  sacrifices  came  late  in  the 


174  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

history  of  Israel,  whatever  place  they  may  have 
had  in  the  laws.  There  is  no  account  of  a  day  of 
atonement  being  observed  at  any  time  prior  to  the 
Exile.  Under  the  head  of  the  Day  of  Atonement 
we  have  the  first  command  for  the  high  priest  to 
enter  the  Holy  of  Holies  when  once  a  year  he 
makes  an  atonement  for  himself  with  a  bullock 
which  is  a  sin-offering,  and  then  he  cast  lots  upon 
two  goats,  one  to  be  for  Jehovah  and  the  other  for 
Azazel.  The  ten  days  before  the  great  day  of  sac- 
rifice were  days  of  penitence  and  effort  to  renew 
the  heart  of  Israel,  and  to  prepare  to  receive  the 
gift  of  his  mercy.  It  was  not  only  a  time  of 
repentance,  but  upon  this  great  day  after  the  lenten 
days  were  passed,  they  came  before  the  Lord,  joy- 
ful, and  clad  in  white  garments.  The  Day  of 
Atonement  was,  therefore,  both  a  fast  day  and  a 
festival.  The  prayers  contained  confession  of  sin 
and  an  appeal  for  forgiveness.  The  Law  of  the 
Atonement  was  read  to  the  people  and  the  whole 
service  ends  with  a  sevenfold  exclamation,  "The 
Lord  he  is  God!"  This  day  also  came  to  be  at 
last  an  all-souls  day,  when  candles  were  brought  to 
be  burned  in  the  synagogue  in  memory  of  the  dead. 
Two  goats  were  offered,  one  becoming  the  scape- 
goat upon  whom  the  lot  fell  that  it  should  belong 
to  Azazel.     He  was  sent  forth  into  the  wilderness 


SACRED    SERVICES 


175 


bearing  the  sins  of  the  nation.  This  was  obviously 
an  offering  to  the  devil,  perhaps  not  seriously  but 
rather  as  sending  to  him  the  sins  of  the  people,  a 
gift  of  his  own  come  home.  The  blood  of  the  sin- 
offering  was  sprinkled  upon  the  Holy  of  Holies  for 
the  purification  of  the  priesthood  and  of  the  nation, 
and  when  the  high  priest  entered  into  the  Holy  of 
Holies,  his  annual  privilege,  enveloped  as  he  was  by 
a  cloud  of  incense,  great  emphasis  was  laid  in  the 
minds  of  the  people  upon  the  prayer  that  he  offered 
there  for  the  nation.  Later,  this  annual  Day  of 
Atonement  took  on  more  and  more  a  high  religious 
character,  representing  the  annual  regeneration  of 
the  Hebrew  nation  and  the  union  of  their  life  with 
the  divine  life. 

The  Feast  of  Trumpets  is  a  rest  day  and  also  a 
day  of  sacrifice.  It  represents  the  beginning  of  the 
separation  for  the  Day  of  Atonement.  And  the 
Day  of  Atonement  itself  is  opened  with  noise  of 
trumpets  throughout  Israel.  The  question  of  the 
Sabbath  we  shall  leave  for  a  particular  discussion 
apart  from  the  questions  of  its  use.  It  seems  clear 
that  the  development  of  the  ritual  of  Israel  must 
have  followed  without  any  particular  variations  the 
development  of  its  history,  but  particularly  the  mak- 
ing of  the  priesthood.  With  no  priesthood  there 
could    be    no    established    and    permanent    ritual. 


176  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

Without  a  nation,  there  could  not  have  been 
national  religious  festivals.  In  various  parts  of 
the  land,  the  ancient  tribal  and  clan  customs  for  a 
long  time  held  sway.  The  agricultural  quality  of 
the  festivals  could  not  fail  to  be  strongly  marked 
by  the  particular  character  of  the  fruits  of  the 
earth.  It  seems  plain  that  the  three  great  festivals, 
the  Passover,  Pentecost,  and  the  Tabernacles,  were 
made  to  fit  the  great  periods  of  agricultural  life. 
Such  festivals  could  not  have  been  brought  from 
Egypt;  they  could  not  have  been  practised  in  the 
wilderness,  though  the  Passover  and  Pentecost 
may  easily  have  been  ancient  Semitic  festivals 
which  were  transformed  while  the  people  of  Israel 
lived  among  their  kinsmen  the  Canaanites,  and  then 
transfigured  as  the  religion  of  Jehovah  became 
dominant  in  the  land.  The  religious  year  of  Israel 
extended  over  seven  months  and  was  a  summer- 
time period.  There  also  came  to  be  festivals  of 
New  Years,  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  the  former 
coming  in  the  spring  and  the  latter  in  the  autumn. 
There  is  also  a  parallel  between  the  development  of 
these  sacrifices  and  the  development  of  the  idea  of 
God.  As  the  divine  idea  became  cleansed  and 
exalted,  the  ritual  became  more  and  more  solemn 
and  sacrificial.  Nor  does  it  seem  to  be  any  defect 
in  this  religion  if  it  can  be  shown  that  the  atoning 


SACRED    SERVICES  177 

idea  in  sacrifice  came  late.  The  loftier  the  divine 
idea,  the  more  difficult  to  make  an  approach  into 
his  awful  presence.  A  single  reference  to  Azazel 
has  been  made.  The  goat  offered  to  Azazel  was 
not  sacrificed  but  was  sent  away  into  the  wilderness, 
although  it  is  said  that  he  was  pushed  ofif  from  a 
precipice.  The  story  is  that  as  he  was  thrown  from 
the  rock,  twelve  miles  away  from  the  city  of  Jerusa- 
lem, at  a  given  signal  the  people  celebrated  the 
event  with  dancing  and  much  festivity.  Azazel 
seems  to  have  been  in  the  Semitic  mythology  the 
spirit  of  evil.  We  have  here  reduced  to  fixed  form 
the  triumph  of  good  over  evil.  It  can  hardly  be,  as 
Mr.  Moncure  Conway  suggests,  that  this  was  an 
efifort  on  the  part  of  the  people  to  make  sure  of 
being  on  the  right  side,  whether  evil  or  good  should 
prove  the  stronger.  So  far  from  being  a  late  cere- 
mony, though  found  only  in  the  Book  of  Leviticus, 
it  is  not  unlikely  to  have  been  some  shred  of  an 
ancient  faith  of  which  we  have  here  only  a 
fragment. 

It  must  be  noted  that  so  far  as  we  can  see,  the 
priest  controlled  the  religious  institutions  more  and 
more  as  they  were  developed,  but  the  prophets  also 
have  some  words  to  say.  These  great  men  called 
upon  the  people  to  rend  their  hearts  and  not  their 
garments.  The  later  psalms  are  full  of  revolt 
12 


178  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

against  mere  mechanism  of  ritual,  and  see  in  it  no 
permanent  value.  Sings  one :  "For  thou  delightest 
not  in  sacrifice;  else  would  I  give  it:  thou  hast  no 
pleasure  in  burnt-offerings.  The  sacrifices  of  God 
are  a  broken  spirit :  a  broken  and  a  contrite  heart, 
O  God,  thou  wilt  not  despise."  Very  explicit  is  the 
voice  of  another  to  whom  Jehovah  says: 

"I  will  take  no  bullock  out  of  thy  house 

Nor  he-goats  out  of  thy  folds 

For  every  beast  of  the  forest  is  mine 

And  the  cattle  upon  a  thousand  hills. 

I  know  all  the  fowls  of  the  mountain 

And  the  wild  beasts  of  the  fields  are  mine. 

If   I   were   hungry   I   would   not   tell   thee 

For  the  world   is   mine  and  the  fulness  thereof. 

Will  I  eat  the  flesh  of  bulls 

Or  drink  the  blood   of  goats? 

Offer  unto  God  the  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving 

And   pay   thy   vows   unto  the    Most   High 

And  call  upon  him  in  the  day  of  trouble 

I  will    deliver  thee   and  thou    shalt  glorify  me." 

Such  was  the  higher  content  of  the  Hebrew  religion. 
Did  space  permit,  scores  of  citations  from  the 
prophets  could  be  given  to  indicate  their  attitude 
in  the  matter  of  their  nation's  ritual.  The  body  of 
religion  might  be  in  external  altars  and  temples ; 
the  dramatic  services  of  religion  might  require  sac- 
rifice and  festival,  but  neither  altars  nor  the  one 
institution  of  the  temple  in  all  its  services  were  of 


SACRED    SERVICES  179 

any  final  validity  save  as  they  gave  expression  to 
the  soul  of  religion  which  dwelt  within  them  and 
which  was  a  constant  renewal  of  the  covenant  which 
they  held  with  Jehovah  whom  they  worshiped. 


CHAPTER  X 
SACRED  OBJECTS 

THE  ARK 

The  most  significant  and  the  most  original 
object  in  the  reHgious  furniture  of  the  Hebrews 
was  a  box,  probably  something  over  four  feet  long 
and  about  three  feet  wide  and  three  feet  high, 
called  the  Ark  of  Jehovah  or  the  Ark  of  the  Cove- 
nant. It  is  vain  to  compare  the  Ark  with  those 
boxes  used  for  carrying  about  idols  in  processions 
on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  or  with  those  boats 
used  for  the  same  purpose  on  the  river  Nile.  There 
is  a  suggestion  of  the  sacred  chest  of  the  Hebrews 
in  the  belief  that  the  image  of  the  goddess  Pallas 
must  be  preserved  in  order  to  secure  the  safety  of 
the  city  of  Troy.  In  like  manner,  early  images, 
crude  and  inartistic,  are  said  to  have  been  pre- 
served in  Greece  because  they  had  fallen  from 
heaven  and  were  special  symbols  of  divine  beings. 
The  notices  of  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  are  so 
numerous  and  its  position  in  the  life  of  Israel  is  so 
unique,  that  it  may  well  be  said  that  this  box  is  the 
most  Important  sacred  object  that  the  world  has 

i8o 


SACRED    OBJECTS  '  i8i 

ever  seen.  There  is  a  tendency  among  modern 
scholars  to  reduce  the  whole  history  of  Israel  to 
the  domain  of  legend  devised  about  the  time  of  the 
Exile,  but  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  is  securely  en- 
trenched in  the  earlier  history.  There  can  be  no 
question  that  the  holy  box  was  made,  and  it  is  not 
at  all  impossible  to  believe  that  the  account  of  its 
making  given  in  Exodus  is  substantially  correct 
and  if  there  were  an  Ark,  it  is  easy  to  believe  that 
there  was  also  a  tabernacle  for  the  sheltering  of 
the  Ark,  though  the  account  of  the  tabernacle  and 
of  the  furniture  was  not  made  in  the  days  of  Moses 
and  is  doubtless  too  opulent  to  be  perfectly  his- 
toric. The  first  notice  we  have  of  the  use  of  the 
Ark  was  as  a  leader  in  battle,  and  in  this  use  there 
are  very  many  parallels,  except  that  among  other 
peoples  the  images  of  their  gods  were  taken  into 
battle,  possibly  for  the  more  express  purpose  of  the 
divine  help,  but  possibly  also  in  part  as  men  to-day 
carry  flags.  The  record  is,  "And  it  came  to  pass 
when  the  Ark  set  forward  that  Moses  said,  Rise 
up,  Jehovah,  and  let  thine  enemies  be  scattered,  and 
let  them  that  hate  thee  flee  before  thee;  and  when 
it  rested  he  said.  Return,  O  Jehovah,  unto  the  ten 
thousands  of  the  thousands  of  Israel"  (Num.  x. 
35,  36).  Nor  did  it  do  at  that  time  to  omit  the 
presence  of  the  Ark.     "They  presumed  to  go  up  to 


i82  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

the  top  of  the  mountain;  nevertheless  the  Ark  of 
the  covenant  of  Jehovah  and  Moses  departed  not 
out  of  the  camp;  then  the  Amalekites  came  down, 
and  the  Canaanites  who  dwelt  in  that  mountain,  and 
smote  them  and  beat  them  down."  According  to 
the  later  law  the  Ark  was  always  to  be  kept  in  the 
Holy  of  Holies,  but  an  interesting  passage  in  the 
Book  of  Joshua  informs  us  that  at  the  time  of  the 
sin  of  Achan,  who  preserved  clothing,  silver  and 
gold  after  the  destruction  of  Jericho,  there  resulted 
a  defeat  for  Israel.  When  they  encompassed  the 
next  town  we  read  that  "Joshua  rent  his  clothes 
and  fell  to  the  earth  upon  his  face  before  the  Ark 
of  Jehovah  until  the  evening,  he  and  the  elders  of 
Israel,  and  they  put  dust  upon  their  heads"  (Joshua 
vii.  6).  This  indicates  that  so  far  from  the  Ark  of 
the  Covenant  being  kept  secluded  from  the  people, 
at  least  the  elders  of  the  people  used  it  as  a  holy 
shrine  at  which  they  offered  prayers. 

For  many  generations  we  have  no  notice  of  the 
Ark  and  when  we  hear  of  it  again  it  does  not  seem 
to  have  the  old-time  power.  At  this  time  when 
Samuel  was  the  ruling  leader  of  Israel,  so  far  as 
they  had  one  head,  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  was 
established  in  the  sanctuary  in  Shiloh.  The  Philis- 
tines, persistent  enemies  of  Israel,  set  themselves  in 
battle  array,  and  when  Israel  fled  before  the  Philis- 


SACRED   OBJECTS  183 

tines  the  elders  of  the  people  suddenly  bethought 
themselves  of  the  Ark  and  said,  ''Let  us  fetch  the 
Ark  of  the  covenant  of  Jehovah  out  of  Shiloh  unto 
us  that  it  may  come  among  us  and  save  us  out  of 
the  hand  of  our  enemies.  So  the  people  sent  to 
Shiloh  and  brought  from  thence  the  Ark  of  the 
covenant  of  Jehovah  of  hosts  who  sitteth  above  the 
cherubim"  (i  Sam.  iv.).  The  earth  rang  again 
while  all  Israel  shouted  as  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant 
was  brought  into  camp.  The  Philistines  recognized 
this  Ark  as  a  particular  symbol  of  the  divine  pres- 
ence  and  they  said,  "God  has  come  into  the  camp," 
but  notwithstanding  the  joy  of  Israel  and  the  terror 
of  the  Philistines,  the  issue  of  the  battle  was  a 
great  slaughter  of  the  Hebrews.  The  Ark  of  God 
was  taken  and  its  keepers  were  slain.  When  Eli 
was  informed  of  the  death  of  his  sons — a  man  now 
nearly  one  hundred  years  old — he  still  withstood  the 
shock ;  but  when  mention  was  made  that  the  Ark  of 
God  was  taken,  this  was  more  than  the  loss  of  his 
children,  and  he  fell  from  his  seat  stricken  so  that 
he  died. 

The  result  of  the  battle  against  the  Philistines 
was  a  sad  fate  for  Israel.  "And  the  Philistines 
took  the  Ark  of  God  and  brought  it  from  Ebenezer 
unto  Ashdod."  When  the  Philistines  took  the  Ark 
of  God  they  brought  it  unto  the  house  of,  Dagon 


l84  RELIGION    IN    THE    MAKING 

and  set  it  by  Dagon.  The  degradation  could  not 
have  been  more  complete.  Israel  defeated,  the 
Ark  taken,  and,  worse  than  all,  it  is  set  up  in  a 
heathen  temple.  But  misfortune  befell  the  Philis- 
tines. From  the  house  of  Dagon  the  Ark  was 
carried  forth,  for  the  god  Dagon  fell  upon  his  face 
to  the  ground  in  the  night  because  of  the  holy 
Ark.  From  place  to  place  it  went  and  during  seven 
months  the  Philistines  were  smitten.  At  last  with 
repentance  and  with  gifts  they  returned  to  Israel  this 
chest  as  full  of  plague  as  ever  was  Pandora's  box. 
For  a  long  time  the  Ark  remained  practically  ig- 
nored, but  when  David  has  his  wars  with  the 
Philistines,  he  bethinks  him  of  the  Ark  of  God, 
and  with  a  great  company  of  men,  and  with  all 
manner  of  music  and  much  jubilee,  the  Ark  was 
brought  from  the  house  of  Abinadad.  And  now 
a  new  terror  is  discovered.  This  Ark  cannot  be 
touched  by  any  unsanctified  hand,  and  w^hen  the 
rashness  of  Uzzah  cost  him  his  life,  it  is  recorded 
that  David  was  afraid  of  Jehovah  that  day,  and  it 
was  only  after  the  Ark  had  blessed  the  house  of 
Obed-edom  that  he  dared  to  bring  it  up  into  his 
own  city.  Some  kind  of  a  sanctuary  was  provided 
until  the  temple  of  Solom.on  was  builded,  when  it 
was  the  central  object  in  the  Holy  of  Holies  be- 
neath the  mercy  seat,  at  each  end  of  which  was  a 


SACRED    OBJECTS  185 

cherub,  and  here  was  the  place  that  God  made  him- 
self known. 

According  to  the  Second  Law,  the  tribe  of  Levi 
was  separated  to  the  Lord  to  bear  the  Ark  of  the 
Covenant,  as  well  as  to  stand  before  the  Lord  to 
minister  unto  him  and  to  bless  his  name.  Accord- 
ing to  the  later  law  the  Holy  of  Holies  within  the 
veil  was  not  to  be  entered  lightly  even  by  the  high 
priest,  because  God  appeared  in  the  cloud  upon 
the  mercy  seat  (Lev.  xvi.  2).  And  when  the 
temple  was  finally  completed,  the  bringing  of  the 
Ark  was  a  great  festival  in  Israel,  and  there  the 
object  for  which  the  temple  was  really  built  was 
carried  in  an  innumerable  procession,  and  priestly 
hands  bore  'The  Ark  of  the  Covenant  of  the  Lord 
unto  his  place  unto  the  oracle  of  the  house  to  the 
most  holy  place,  even  unto  the  wings  of  the  cheru- 
bim." A  precedent  had  been  established  for  the 
Ark  having  a  fixed  dwelling-place  from  which  the 
Lord  should  work  and  no  longer  should  it  take 
vagrant  journeys  for  holy  or  any  other  pilgrimage. 
When  Zadok,  the  high  priest  and  father  of  the 
priestly  family,  proposed  at  the  time  of  the  defec- 
tion of  Absalom  that  the  Ark  should  be  borne 
away,  David  replied,  "Carry  back  the  Ark  of  God 
unto  the  city:  if  I  shall  find  favor  in  the  eyes  of 


l86  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

the  Lord  he  will  bring  me  again  and  show  me  both 
it  and  his  habitation"  (2  Sam.  xv.  25). 

And  what  was  this  Ark  and  why  its  vast  signifi- 
cance to  this  people?  It  is  hard  to  interpret  a 
glorified  fetich  among  a  people  one  of  whose  great- 
est laws  was,  "Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  any 
graven  image,"  but  that  in  some  way  or  other  it  filled 
a  similar  place  to  that  filled  in  other  religions  by 
idols  or  by  oracles,  there  can  be  no  question.  And 
what  did  this  acacia  box  contain?  According  to  a 
later  tradition  of  Israel,  there  was  a  golden  pot  of 
manna,  Aaron's  rod  that  budded,  and  the  tables  of 
the  covenant.  However  this  may  have  been  in  the 
beginning,  it  is  definitely  stated  that  when  Solomon 
brought  the  Ark  into  his  temple  "there  was  noth- 
ing in  the  ark  save  the  two  tables  of  stone  which 
Moses  put  there  at  Horeb  when  Jehovah  made  a 
covenant  wath  the  children  of  Israel  when  they 
came  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt"  (i  Kings  viii.  9). 

Once  in  the  temple,  the  Ark  lost  its  individuality 
and  became  part  of  the  holy  shrine.  Of  the  final 
fortunes  of  the  Ark  we  are  left  in  ignorance. 
Whether  it  was  carried  away  in  some  of  the  plun- 
derings  of  the  temple  by  successful  enemies,  we  do 
not  know ;  or  whether,  as  tradition  says,  before  the 
capture  of  Jerusalem,  Jeremiah  hid  both  the  Ark 
of  the  Covenant  and  the  holy  fire  in  a  cave  whence 


SACRED    OBJECTS  187 

it  shall  sometime  be  brought  forth  as  the  standard 
of  a  new  kingdom  of  Israel,  we  do  not  know. 

Ezra  does  not  mention  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant, 
and  there  is  no  post-exilic  account  of  it.  It  was 
certainly,  therefore,  not  an  invention  of  the  later 
priests,  as  some  critics  would  have  us  think.  The 
lost  history  of  all  the  furnishings  of  the  Holy  of 
Holies  has  in  it  a  tragic  element.  Tacitus  declares 
that  when  the  desecrating  Roman  general,  Pompey, 
invaded  the  Holy  of  Holies,  he  found  therein  noth- 
ing. The  vanished  sanctities  lay  near  the  heart  of 
the  religion.  The  sanctities  had  indeed  vanished 
from  the  Holy  of  Holies,  but  these  were  not  dead. 
The  synagogue,  perhaps  gift  of  the  prophets  in  its 
origin  and  certainly  keeping  alive  as  far  as  possible 
the  prophetic  spirit,  had  its  sacred  chest  containing 
its  roll  of  scriptures.  Instead  of  one  Ark  of  the 
Covenant,  there  were  as  many  in  Israel  as  there 
were  synagogues.  Both  institutions  and  sanctities 
may  change  their  forms  while  the  beating  heart  of 
life  has  taken  for  itself  another  body.  As  the  mar- 
riage ring  upon  the  hand  of  a  woman  meant  in  the 
first  place  slavery,  but  came  later  to  mean  the  bond 
of  love,  so  the  reincarnations  of  history  are  full  of 
examples  of  ancient  symbols  taking  on  new  and 
larger  meanings. 


188  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

OTHER  SACRED  MATERIALS 

Among  the  garments  of  the  high  priest  was  his 
ephod,  which  seems  to  have  been  the  central  fact 
in  the  holy  garments  which  are  described  as  being 
intended  *'for  glory  and  for  beauty."  There  was  a 
breastplate,  and  an  ephod,  a  robe  and  a  coat  of 
checker  work,  a  miter  or.  turban,  and  a  girdle. 
These  are  described  as  having  been  made  with  strik- 
ing colors,  blue,  and  purple,  and  scarlet,  as  well  as 
ornamented  with  gold  and  precious  stones.  Two 
onyx  stones  were  to  contain  the  names  of  the  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel  to  be  borne  upon  his  breast  con- 
tinually before  the  Lord,  but  also  the  mysterious 
Urim  and  Thummim  were  placed  in  the  breastplate 
of  judgment,  and  these  he  bore  when  he  went  in 
before  Jehovah,  and  so  did  Aaron  bear  the  judg- 
ment of  the  children  of  Israel  upon  his  heart.  The 
ephod  was  covered  with  embroidery  from  which 
depended  golden  bells,  that  the  sound  of  music 
might  go  with  him  when  he  entered  the  Holy  Place 
before  the  Lord.  Upon  his  holy  turban  there  was 
a  plate  of  pure  gold  bearing  the  legend  "Holy  to 
Jehovah."  Such  and  more  is  the  account  of  the 
holy  vestments  of  the  high  priest  (Ex.  xxviii.). 

Now  it  is  necessary  to  follow  the  changes  of  this 
vestment  called  the  ephod,  which  is  the  only  thing 
that  has  a  special  history.     When   Samuel  minis- 


SACRED    OBJECTS  189 

tered  before  the  Lord,  being  a  child,  he  was  girded 
with  a  Hnen  ephod  (i  Sam.  ii.  18).  David  is  said 
to  have  worn  a  linen  ephod  as  he  danced  before  the 
Lord  with  all  his  might  when  the  Ark  was  brought 
up  to  the  city  of  David.  But  long  before  these 
days,  to  refer  once  more  to  the  story  of  Micah,  the 
graven  image  that  called  for  a  house  of  the  gods 
to  shelter  it,  also  demanded  an  ephod  and  teraphim. 
Of  the  teraphim  we  read  in  the  cleansing  of  the 
house  of  Jacob  before  they  went  to  Bethel.  And 
once  again  there  was  an  image  laid  in  the  bed  by 
Michal  in  order  to  permit  David  to  escape.  This 
image  seems  to  have  been  of  good  size,  for  with  its 
head  laid  upon  a  pillow  of  goat's  hair  and  covered 
with  a  cloak,  it  simulated  the  size  of  a  man,  and 
when  messengers  came  in  and  discovered  the  tera- 
phim, David  was  escaped. 

The  ephod  seems  later  to  have  become  an  object 
carried  in  the  hand,  as  in  the  time  when  Saul  found 
that  the  Philistines  demanded  the  presence  of  the 
Ark  of  God  in  order  to  make  the  oracle  complete. 
Lots  were  cast  and  the  people  escaped,  and  then 
Jonathan  was  taken  because  he  had  eaten  of  honey 
the  day  of  the  battle,  though  his  father  had  charged 
the  people  with  an  oath  saying,  "Cursed  be  the 
m.an  that  eateth  any  food  until  it  be  evening,  and  I 
be  avenged  on  mine  enemies,"  and  when  Saul  found 


I90  RELIGION    IN    THE   MAKING 

that  it  was  Jonathan  who  had  defied  his  curse,  he 
doomed  him  to  death ;  but  Jonathan  was  a  great 
favorite  with  the  people  as  well  as  a  great  warrior, 
and  they  on  their  side  made  an  oath,  "As  Jehovah 
liveth  there  shall  not  one  hair  of  his  head  fall  to  the 
ground,  for  he  hath  wrought  with  God  this  day" 
(i  Sam.  xiv.). 

And  in  another  important  story  we  read  that  this 
ephod  was  used  as  an  oracle,  for  when  David  had 
fought  with  the  Philistines  and  saved  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Keilah  while  Saul  came  down  to  destroy 
him,  he  demanded  that  Abiathar  the  priest  bring 
down  the  ephod,  and  with  the  ephod  the  question 
was  asked  whether  on  Samuel's  approach  the  men 
of  Keilah  would  deliver  him  up  or  not,  and  the 
answer  through  the  oracle  directly  from  Jehovah 
was,  'They  will  deliver  thee  up,  and  so  it  happened 
that  David  and  his  six  hundred  departed  from 
Keilah  and  went  whithersoever  they  could  go." 

There  is  some  lack  of  clearness  about  the  method, 
but  judging  by  practices  in  other  religions  we  may 
well  decide  that  the  ephod  had  pockets  in  which 
were  cast,  as  among  the  Arabs,  white  stones  and 
black  stones,  meaning  "Yes"  and  "No."  So  the 
Urim  and  Thummim  may  have  been  equally  used 
for  asking  direct  questions,  being  placed  in  the 
pocket  of  the  ephod. 


SACRED    OBJECTS  191 

Looking  into  the  future  has  been  a  favorite  occu- 
pation among  many  peoples  widely  scattered. 
Flights  of  birds,  the  entrails  of  animals,  and  par- 
ticularly the  liver,  have  been  regarded  as  important. 
So  we  read,  "Till  a  dart  strike  through  his  liver, 
as  a  bird  hasteth  to  the  snarer  and  knoweth  not  that 
it  is  for  his  life."  With  divinations  of  various 
kinds  came  also  the  appeal  to  the  dead  for  informa- 
tion, as  where  Saul  sought  the  spirit  of  Samuel, 
the  method  of  which  was  so  bitterly  condemned  by 
Isaiah,  and  in  response  to  the  historic  witch  of 
Endor  the  prophet  cries,  ''And  when  they  shall  say 
unto  you.  Seek  unto  them  that  hath  familiar  spirits 
and  unto  wizards  that  peep  and  that  mutter ;  should 
not  a  people  seek  unto  their  God.  On  behalf  of  the 
living  should  they  seek  unto  the  dead." 

The  sacred  stone  as  an  article  used  in  worship 
has  a  varied  history.  Egypt  and  India  give  us 
examples,  as  well  as  Druids  in  their  various  homes 
and  the  Semites  almost  everywhere.  Joshua  sanc- 
tifies the  sanctuary  to  Jehovah  at  Shechem  by  set- 
ting up  a  sacred  stone  under  the  holy  tree,  and 
again  at  Gilgal  after  crossing  the  Jordan.  The 
earliest  mention  of  a  holy  stone  was  the  one  set  up 
by  Jacob  upon  which  oil  was  poured.  When 
Rachel  died  and  was  buried  in  Bethlehem  It  is  said 
that  "J^cob  set  up  a  pillar  (Massebah)  upon  her 


192  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

grave,"  and  this  pillar  of  Rachel  became  a  holy 
stone  for  generations.  The  need  of  a  son  for  com- 
memoration was  important  in  all  religions  that  had 
ancestor  worship.  This  gives  special  interest  to 
the  statement  that  Absalom  had  reared  for  himself 
in  his  lifetime  a  memorial  pillar  saying,  "I  have  no 
son  to  keep  my  name  in  remembrance,  and  he  called 
the  pillar  after  his  own  name  and  it  is  called 
Absalom's  monument  unto  this  day"  (2  Sam. 
xviii.  18.) 

The  holy  stone  was  a  common  accompaniment  of 
the  various  high  places  of  worship.  The  crom- 
lechs, like  those  of  the  Druids,  are  found  east  of 
the  Jordan,  and  also  in  the  country  about  Galilee. 
The  holy  stone  in  some  form  or  other  has  been  used 
in  most  of  the  ancient  forms  of  religion.  It  was 
found  regularly  at  the  sanctuaries  of  Canaan.  It 
is  declared  that  the  Canaanites,  the  Amorites,  and 
the  Jebusites  had  altars,  stone  pillars,  and  also  holy 
posts,  and  these  the  people  of  Israel  were  com- 
manded to  cut  down  (Ex.  xxxiv.  13).  It  is  also 
said  that  a  stone  obelisk  has  been  discovered  on  the 
Isle  of  Cyprus  with  an  inscription  indicating  that 
it  was  used  as  a  holy  stone.  Sacred  stones  were  gen- 
eral in  the  Arab  world  as  well  as  among  the  Greeks 
and  Romans.  The  holy  stone  is  the  foundation  of 
the  stone  altar  but  after  altars  were  erected,  stone 


SACRED    OBJECTS  193 

columns  frequently  stood  beside  them  that  were 
not  used  directly  in  the  service.  It  is  possible  the 
free  pillars  erected  before  Solomon's  temple  may 
have  been  conventionalized  masseboth.  Among 
some  peoples  these  stones  were  believed  to  be 
actually  possessed  by  the  gods  whom  they  wor- 
shiped, and  form  the  foundation  for  the  sculptured 
beauty  of  later  idols  among  artistic  peoples. 

The  sacred  post  or  Ashera  stood  at  the  Canaanite 
places  of  worship  by  nearly  all  altars  that  were 
important  in  the  sacred  places  and  even  at  a 
comparatively  late  date  these  sacred  posts  were 
found  by  the  altars  of  the  temple  in  Jerusalem.  In 
Josiah's  great  reformation  these  were  some  of  the 
things  which  he  destroyed.  There  seem  to  be 
many  forms  of  these  posts,  and  it  is  known  that 
they  were  used  by  the  Cyprians  and  the  Phoenicians. 
The  Ashera  seems  to  have  been  originally  regarded 
as  a  living  tree,  but  the  holy  tree  is  not  quite 
parallel  to  the  conventionalized  post  known  as  the 
Ashera.  The  Second  Law  forbade  the  Ashera: 
"Thou  shalt  not  plant  thee  an  ashera  of  any  kind 
of  wood  beside  the  altar  of  Jehovah  thy  God." 
This  post  seems  by  evidence  outside  of  the  Old 
Testament  to  have  been  in  some  way  or  other  a 
representative  of  the  divine  presence.  It  hardly 
seems  possible,  as  some  scholars  affirm,  that,  the 
i3 


194  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

Ashera  was  the  name  of  a  goddess,  as  is  intimated 
by  the  Tel-Amarna  letters.  There  could  probably 
be  traced,  were  it  worth  while,  some  relation  be- 
tween the  Ashera  and  the  totem  which  still  sur- 
vives as  the  representative  of  the  faith  of  a  clan, 
and  while  the  Ashera  was  never  any  vital  part  of 
the  national  worship  of  the  Hebrews,  that  it  played 
its  subordinate  part,  and  perhaps  an  important  one 
in  some  localities  among  scattered  clans,  there  can 
be  no  question.  The  facts  with  respect  to  the  sa- 
cred stone  and  the  sacred  post  seem  to  be  that  they 
were  not  confined  to  the  worship  of  Jehovah  and 
not  characteristic,  therefore,  of  Israel.  They  were 
erected  to  Jehovah  in  common  with  other  gods. 
The  law  used  by  Josiah  forbade  their  use,  and 
though  there  seems  little  doubt  that  they  were  in 
some  way  or  other  used  as  a  fetich,  they  were 
gradually  eliminated  under  the  influence  of  the 
prophets,  and  the  later  development  of  Israel. 

Another  object  unique  in  the  history  of  Israel  is 
the  brazen  serpent,  though  in  some  form  or  other 
the  serpent  had  been  worshiped  ages  before  in 
Egypt.  When  Hezekiah  undertook  his  extensive 
reformation,  it  is  said  that  he  not  only  broke  down 
the  holy  stones  and  cut  down  the  holy  posts,  but  he 
also  "brake  in  pieces  the  brazen  serpent  that  Moses 
had  made,  for  unto  those  days  the  children  of  Israel 


SACRED   OBJECTS  195 

did  burn  incense  to  it,  and  he  called  it  a  piece  of 
brass"  (2  Kings  xviii.  4). 

So  passed  away  under  the  assault  of  this  great 
iconoclast  one  of  the  sacred  objects  of  Israel,  rever- 
ence of  which  had  doubtless  become  to  them  a  form 
of  idolatry. 

Like  most  ancient  peoples  the  Hebrews  wore 
various  kinds  of  ornaments  that  were  regarded  as 
sacred  because  the  wearing  of  them  afforded  them 
protection.  It  is  not  necessary  to  follow  this  sub- 
ject further  than  to  call  attention  to  a  specific  form 
of  amulet  mentioned  in  the  Second  Law.  'There- 
fore shall  ye  lay  up  these  my  words  in  your  heart 
and  in  your  soul  and  ye  shall  bind  them  for  a  sign 
upon  your  hand,  and  they  shall  be  for  frontlets 
between  your  eyes,  and  thou  shalt  write  them  upon 
the  doorposts  of  thine  house,  and  upon  thy  gates : 
That  your  days  may  be  multiplied  and  the  days  of 
your  children  in  the  land  which  Jehovah  sware  unto 
your  fathers  to  give  them"  (Deut.  xi.  18).  Thus 
instead  of  the  earring  to  keep  away  evils,  or  the 
charmed  stone,  perhaps  inhabited  by  some  god,  to 
wear  in  a  ring,  and  all  the  various  forms  which 
these  protections  have  taken,  at  least  in  the  Second 
Law  there  was  nothing  so  important  as  reverence 
for  the  word  of  the  Lord  as  written  down  in  holy 
commandments,  and  if  they  wore  these,  they  did 


ig6  RELIGION    IN    THE    MAKING 

well,  and  later  writers  made  a  still  further  advance 
when  they  urge  that  the  real  protection  is  to  write 
that  law  upon  the  heart. 

Every  form  of  organized  religion  must  have  its 
holy  apparatus,  from  the  plainest  meeting  house  to 
the  most  majestic  temple,  from  the  simplest  symbols 
of  a  holy  brotherhood  to  the  most  ornate  vestments 
of  the  priesthood  and  the  splendid  vessels  of  a  com- 
plicated ritual.  The  extent  of  the  temple  does  not 
depend  entirely  upon  either  the  numbers  or  the 
wealth  of  the  people,  but  upon  the  devotion  which 
they  hold  to  the  objects  of  their  worship.  But 
religions  grow  magnificent  as  they  grow  older,  for 
reverence  is  two  parts  memory  and  one  part  devo- 
tion. The  Jehovah  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob 
still  thrills  the  devout  modern  Jew  because  he  was 
the  early  clan  god  of  his  fathers.  So  time  hallows 
objects  of  religion  and  their  sanctity  gathers  with 
the  years,  but  if  the  object  represent  a  doctrine  that 
is  outgrown,  or  forms  of  worship  that  stand  in  the 
way  of  the  real  advance  of  the  people,  some  strong 
arm  will  arise  to  break  it  In  pieces  and  say,  "It  is 
not  for  your  worship ;  it  is  only  a  piece  of  brass." 


CHAPTER    XI 
SACRED    DAYS 

Times  and  seasons  are  as  much  a  necessity  of 
every  religion  as  sacred  services.  All  social  inter- 
ests require  some  kind  of  a  calendar.  Religious 
festivals  among  every  people  have  either  been  called 
by  special  proclamations,  or  have  been  celebrated  at 
fixed  and  regular  times.  The  summer  and  winter 
solstice  have  been  venerable  religious  occasions 
among  the  most  widely  scattered  tribes. 

But  doubtless  earlier  than  the  celebration  of  the 
movements  of  the  sun  was  the  recognition  of  the 
phases  of  the  moon.  Among  shepherd  people  in 
tropical  or  semi-tropical  countries  the  moon  was  a 
gentle  guardian,  while  the  sun  with  its  fierce,  with- 
ering heat  was  looked  upon  as  an  open  enemy. 
The  changes  of  the  moon  were  so  obvious  that 
among  many  primitive  peoples,  as  among  the  North 
American  Indians,  time  was  counted  by  moons 
rather  than  by  years.  The  four  phases  of  the  moon 
naturally  led  to  the  division  of  time  into  weeks. 
This  was  a  common  discovery  of  men  so  widely 
separated  that  communication  between  them  was 
197 


198  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

not  likely.  The  week,  therefore,  was  the  earliest 
temporal  basis  of  the  social  order.  It  existed  among 
men  before  ever  Abraham  traveled  west. 

It  remained,  however,  for  the  Hebrews  to  estab- 
lish upon  the  basis  of  the  week  a  Sabbath  Day,  the 
origin  of  which  is  obscure,  but  that  it  is  essentially 
a  Hebrew  contribution  to  the  social  and  religious 
history  of  the  world  there  can  no  longer  be  any 
doubt.  It  is  given  to  some  men  to  desire  to  take 
every  glory  away  from  the  Hebrew  people.  Ob- 
scure Babylonian  references  have  been  erected  into 
a  theory  that  the  Sabbath  Day  was  a  child  of  the 
Euphrates.  It  is  not  necessary  to  consider  that 
question  technically.  It  is  enough  to  note  that  at 
the  time  of  the  captivity,  as  well  as  befoi-e  it,  the 
Sabbath  was  regarded  as  a  special  bond  between 
Jehovah  and  his  people.  It  is  necessary,  however, 
to  consider  the  matter  in  some  detail. 

In  the  creation  story  we  read  that  the  world  was 
made  in  six  days  and  that  God  blessed  the  seventh 
day  and  hallowed  it.  In  the  account  of  the  Com- 
mandments the  reason  given  for  the  Sabbath  Day 
as  an  obligation  for  men  was  that  in  six  days  God 
made  the  heavens  and  the  earth  and  rested  upon 
the  seventh  day  (Ex.  xx.  9-1 1).  Though  modern 
knowledge  has  destroyed  the  six  days  by  extending 
them  into  six  great  periods,  and  though  even  the 


SACRED   DAYS  i^g 

periods  themselves  melt  into  each  other  so  that  this 
basis  for  Sabbath  rest  gives  no  support  in  our  times, 
it  is  at  least  suggestive  of  the  high  reverence  in 
which  the  day  was  held  when  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis  was  written.  The  Second  Law  gives  a  dif- 
ferent reason  for  keeping  the  Sabbath.  It  is  as  a 
memorial  ''that  thou  wast  a  servant  in  Egypt" 
(Deut.  V.  15).  A  man  in  bondage  can  keep  no 
Sabbath  by  his  own  choice.  You  Hebrews  deliv- 
ered from  Egypt  and  now  in  a  land  of  your  own, 
no  longer  servants,  may  have  a  Sabbath  for  your- 
selves but  give  it  also  to  your  cattle  and  your  slaves. 
So  shall  you  forever  show  that  you  are  not  un- 
worthy of  your  inheritance.  Thus  does  the  writer 
recognize  the  Sabbath  as  a  perpetual  symbol  of  the 
liberty  of  Israel. 

There  are  very  few  mentions  of  the  Sabbath  in 
the  earlier  history.  In  the  account  of  the  wander- 
ings the  story  of  the  manna  in  the  wilderness  is 
illuminated  by  the  recognition  of  a  rest  day.  The 
manna  gathered  on  the  day  before  the  Sabbath  was 
to  be  double  in  quantity  and  kept  sweet  for  the 
two  days  (Ex.  xvi.  2^).  We  have  an  account  of 
a  man  who  gathered  sticks  on  the  Sabbath  who  was 
stoned  for  his  misconduct  (Num.  xv.  32).  It  is 
very  certain  that  the  penalty  of  death  which  was 
prescribed  for  those  who  violated  the  Sabbath  rest 


200  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

was  not  generally  enforced.  The  directions,  how- 
ever, for  keeping  the  Sabbath  are  sufficiently  ex- 
plicit. Not  only  was  the  death  penalty  prescribed, 
but  there  were  specific  indications  that  no  excuse 
could  be  accepted  for  Sabbath  labor.  "In  earing 
time  and  in  harvest  shalt  thou  rest."  The  plea  of 
special  emergency  would  not  do.  Thus  far  the 
Sabbath  may  have  been  justified  then,  as  now,  upon 
the  ground  of  the  value  of  definite  periods  of  rest 
between  definite  periods  of  labor,  but  this  Hebrew 
Sabbath  is  something  more. 

Very  striking  is  the  use  of  the  word  "sign"  as  a 
note  of  Sabbath  observance.  As  the  plagues  of 
Egypt  were  set  for  signs  that  God  would  protect 
his  people,  so  in  a  more  permanent  manner  this 
choice  of  a  Sabbath  Day  is  declared  by  Jehovah  to 
be  a  badge  of  loyalty.  ''Verily  ye  shall  keep  my 
Sabbath,  for  it  is  a  sign  between  me  and  you 
throughout  your  generations  that  ye  may  know  that 
I  am  Jehovah  who  sanctifieth  you"  (Ex.  xxxi.  13). 
That  this  doctrine  of  a  sign  was  no  less  marked 
than  the  belief  in  a  special  covenant  between 
Jehovah  and  his  people  is  discovered  in  the  prophet 
Ezekiel,  who  after  giving  an  account  of  the  deliv- 
erance of  Israel  from  Egj^pt  and  speaking  of  the 
statutes  and  commandments  by  which  men  were 
to  live,  he  adds,  ''Moreover  also  I  gave  them  my 


SACRED   DAYS  201 

Sabbath  to  be  a  sign  between  me  and  them  that 
they  might  know  that  I  am  Jehovah  that  sanctifieth 
them."  It  is  true  that  the  prophet  complains  that 
they  have  profaned  the  Sabbath  just  as  they  re- 
jected the  laws  because  their  hearts  went  after 
their  idols.  He  declares  that  this  happened  in  the 
wilderness  and  doubtless  it  happened  among  many 
of  the  captives  with  whom  he  lived.  The  Sabbath 
could  only  be  a  sign  between  Jehovah  and  his 
people  so  long  as  it  was  something  unique.  In 
the  very  nature  of  the  case  it  could  not  be  a  bor- 
rowed institution.  The  second  Isaiah  goes  even 
further  and  opens  the  way  for  a  mission  to  other 
peoples,  and  this  is  to  be  a  sign  that  the  foreigner 
has  been  accepted  as  a  worshiper  of  Jehovah. 
"Every  one  that  keepeth  the  Sabbath  from  profan- 
ing it  and  holdeth  fast  my  covenant,  even  them  will 
I  bring  to  my  holy  mountain  and  make  them  joyful 
in  my  house  of  prayer :  for  my  house  shall  be  called 
a  house  of  prayer  for  all  peoples"  (Isa.  Ivi.). 

The  Sabbath  Day  was  made  a  taboo  for  work  but 
it  was  a  festival  of  joy.  It  was  not  only  a  day  for 
religious  worship,  but  it  was  also  a  day  of  feasts 
and  of  plenty.  The  notion  of  the  taboo  comes  out 
still  more  strongly  in  the  Sabbath  year  which  the 
later  law  provides  for  the  land.  Nor  does  the  law 
intimate  that  the  land  was  to  lie  fallow  for  the  sake 


202  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

of  better  harvests  the  next  year.  The  land  itself 
is  said  to  keep  a  Sabbath  to  Jehovah  (Lev.  xxv.  3), 
and  very  explicit  is  the  statement  that  this  Sabbath 
rest  of  the  land  is  to  be  devoted  to  the  poor  and  to 
the  cattle.  They  shall  gather  and  they  shall  feed 
at  will,  and  it  is  to  cover  not  the  field  alone,  but  the 
vineyard  and  the  orchard  as  well.  The  year  after 
the  Sabbath  year  is  not  conspicuous  for  its  fruitful- 
ness;  rather  is  it  the  year  before  the  land  lies  idle. 
"Then  I  will  command  my  blessing  upon  you  in  the 
sixth  year  and  it  shall  bring  forth  fruit  for  three 
years"  (Lev.  xxv.  21). 

The  full  development  of  the  Sabbath  law  for 
Israel  did  not  come  in  Bible  times.  Long  after 
Leviticus  was  written  the  rabbis  spent  much  time 
in  defining  what  was  right  and  what  was  wrong 
for  the  Sabbath  Day.  Precept  after  precept  multi- 
plied until  one  of  the  most  difficult  duties  of  the 
Jew  was  to  keep  himself  from  sin  in  this  particular 
matter  by  the  knowledge  and  observance  of  the 
refined  etiquette  which  applied  to  the  solemn  day. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  take  up  the  question  of  what 
the  rival  schools  of  Shammai  and  Hillel  prescribed. 
The  gentle  tolerance  of  Hillel  accords  with  the 
freedom  of  modern  times,  but  the  sons  of  the 
Puritans,  though  less  numerous  in  their  precepts, 
were  just  as   rigid   in   their   proscriptions   as   the 


SACRED   DAYS  203 

austere  Shammai,  the  great  Jewish  puritan  of  the 
first  century.  It  is  not  needful  to  dwell  longer  upon 
the  Sabbath  Day  than  to  point  out  that  it  was  for 
rest  from  labor,  for  the  worship  of  Jehovah,  for  the 
joy  of  life,  and  was  the  great  ritual  day  that  sepa- 
rated the  Hebrew  people  from  the  nations  which 
surrounded  them. 

The  Sabbath  Day  has  been  adopted  by  Christian- 
ity, and  has  become  a  part  of  the  religious  tradi- 
tions which  that  faith  has  accepted  from  the  Hebrew 
people. 

The  curious  controversy  as  to  whether  the  first 
day  of  the  week  or  the  seventh  may  rightly  be 
observed  as  the  Sabbath  vanishes  at  once  under  a 
consideration  of  the  history.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  Sabbath  in  the  beginning  depended 
upon  the  week,  as  the  week  was  furnished  by  the 
phases  of  the  moon.  But  four  weeks  of  seven  days 
each  did  not  satisfy  the  lunar  requirements.  So 
wherever  the  phases  of  the  moon  furnish  the  time 
measure,  the  new  moon  is  always  the  beginning  of 
the  month,  though  one  or  two  days  may  be  dropped 
in  the  process.  Lunar  weeks  were  sometimes  of 
seven  and  sometimes  of  eight  days'  duration.  It 
was,  therefore,  no  strictly  recurrent  day  which  was 
marked  as  the  Sababth.  Hebrew  law  reckoned  the 
Sabbath  from  sunset  to  sunset.    But  as  sunsets  vary 


204 


RELIGION    IN    THE"  MAKING 


in  time  very  much  during  the  year,  we  have  an- 
other interference  with  the  exactness  of  the  time. 
This  adds  a  further  difficulty  to  the  calculation. 
The  months  were  arranged  by  adding  an  extra 
month  as  often  as  it  was  required,  and  even  the 
names  of  the  months  were  changed  in  order  to 
meet  the  necessities  of  the  solar  year.  The  calen- 
dar of  the  second  Hillel  does  not  exactly  agree  with 
the  Gregorian,  and  in  the  course  of  the  centuries 
the  day  would  be  completely  changed.  There  can 
be  no  question  that  again  and  again  in  early  times 
days  were  inserted  in  the  lunar  year  to  make  it 
correspond  with  the  solar  year.  The  Julian  calen- 
dar was  an  effort  to  create  a  scientific  year,  but  it 
was  only  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago 
that  an  English  statute  cut  out  eleven  days,  making 
the  third  of  September  the  fourteenth  in  order  to 
conform  to  the  fact  of  the  solar  year. 

There  is  some  indication  also  that  the  Sabbath 
Day  was  intentionally  changed  by  the  Hebrews 
themselves.  They  were  to  count  from  the  morrow 
after  the  Sabbath  fifty  days,  and  then  make  a 
proclamation  of  a  holy  convocation  with  no  servile 
work,  and  this  was  a  statute  forever  (Lev.  xxiii. 
15-21).  If  from  this  solemn  convocation  the  new 
Sabbath  was  dated,  it  would  appear  that  in  the 
course  of  seven  years  each  day  in  the  week  would 


SACRED   DAYS 


205 


take  its  place  as  the  Sabbath.  The  uncertainty  of 
the  time  also  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  it  was  the 
only  one  in  the  week  which  had  a  name,  the  other 
days  being  numbered.  As  there  is  not  the  slightest 
evidence  that  the  present  Sunday  of  our  calendar 
corresponds  to  any  fact  in  Christian  history,  so 
also  does  Saturday  fail  to  have  any  historical  sig- 
nificance to  the  Jew.  The  debate  about  days  is  of 
no  importance  and  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath 
rests  upon  the  week  and  upon  a  definite  time  in 
each  week  being  set  apart  according  to  the  devel- 
oped Hebrew  law. 

The  prophets  of  Israel  were  in  accord  with  the 
priests  upon  the  value  of  the  Sabbath.  Amos  in- 
deed rebukes  those  who  would  swallow  up  the 
needy  and  cause  the  poor  of  the  land  to  suffer. 
These  sinners  eagerly  wait  for  the  new  moon  to  be 
gone  that  they  may  sell  grain,  and  for  the  Sabbath 
to  be  over  that  they  may  sell  wheat,  when  they 
would  proceed  to  deal  falsely  with  scant  measure 
and  bad  coins  (Amos  viii.  4).  Isaiah  utters  the 
rebuke  of  Jehovah  to  the  wicked  who  still  sought 
him  in  new  moons  and  Sabbaths  and  assemblies. 
He  cannot  brook  the  union  of  iniquity  and  solemn 
meetings.  No,  they  must  repent  if  they  would  seek 
God.  "Cease  to  do  evil,  learn  to  do  well.  Seek 
justice,  relieve  the  oppressed,  judge  the  fatherless, 
plead  for  the  widow"  (Isa.  i.  17). 


2o6  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

Nor  do  we  wait  until  late  in  the  history  of  the 
Jews  to  find  the  keeping  of  the  Sabbath  numbered 
among  the  moral  obligations  of  the  people.  Jere- 
miah, who  was  to  know  and  to  feel  the  sorrows  of 
his  race  as  no  other  man,  sees  in  the  neglected 
Sabbath  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  miseries  of 
Zion.  They  may  still  hope,  in  spite  of  threatened 
danger,  if  they  will  cease  to  bear  burdens  and  do' 
work  on  the  appointed  days  of  rest.  They  must 
hallow  the  Sabbath,  and  "then  shall  there  enter  in 
by  the  gates  of  this  city  kings  and  princes  sitting 
upon  the  throne  of  David,  riding  in  chariots  and 
on  horses,  and  this  city  shall  remain  forever'*  (Jer. 
xvii.  25).  When  the  destruction  of  the  city  had 
been  accomplished  the  ruin  is  complete  because 
"Jehovah  hath  caused  solemn  assembly  and  Sab- 
bath to  be  forgotten  in  Zion.  And  hath  despised 
in  the  indignation  of  his  anger  the  king  and  the 
priest"   (Lam.  .ii.  6). 

The  second  Isaiah,  who  has  little  to  say  in  favor 
of  ceremonials,  and  who  so  bitterly  rebukes  some 
of  them,  yet  sees  in  the  Sabbath  the  hope  of  his 
people.  "If  thou  wilt  turn  away  thy  foot  from  the 
Sabbath,  from  doing  thy  pleasure  on  my  holy  day, 
then  shalt  thou  delight  thyself  In  Jehovah  and  I 
will  make  thee  to  ride  upon  the  high  places  of  the 
earth,   and  I  will  feed  thee  with  the  heritage  of 


SACRED   DAYS  207 

Jacob  thy  father"  (Isa.  Iviii.  13).  Ezekiel  in  the 
captivity  has  much  to  say  on  the  Sabbath  question. 
The  indictment  against  Israel  in  the  wilderness  is 
that  though  they  received  statutes  by  which  men 
should  live,  and  Sabbaths  as  a  sign  between  them, 
and  Jehovah  to  show  continually  their  separation 
unto  his  service,  they  refused  to  walk  in  his  stat- 
utes, and  they  greatly  profaned  his  Sabbaths  (Ezek. 
XX.).  And  he  argues  that  for  the  very  reason  that 
they  neglected  the  Sabbaths  of  Jehovah,  they  also 
fell  into  the  worship  of  other  gods,  into  profane 
services,  and  evil  lives.  Later  he  recurs  to  the 
same  theme  and  wishes  to  make  plain  their  guilt  by 
coupling  the  wronging  of  the  fatherless  and  the 
widow  with  the  despising  of  holy  things  and  the 
profanation  of  the  Sabbath.  Again  and  again  does 
he  upbraid  the  people  for  their  unfaithfulness  to 
Jehovah  and  for  their  manifold  sins,  and  chief 
among  them  is  this :  'They  have  hid  their  eyes  from 
my  Sabbaths"  (Ex.  xxii,  26). 

When  that  zealous  reformer  Nehemiah  was  seek- 
ing to  rebuild  the  broken  commonwealth  after  the 
captivity  was  ended,  he  went  about  the  task  with 
great  directness.  The  old  covenants  with  Jehovah 
were  recalled  and  a  strict  separation  from  the  alien 
peoples  was  enforced.  The  new  community  at 
Jerusalem  entered  into  "a  curse  and  an  oath  to 


2o8  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

walk  in  God's  law."  They  would  keep  all  the  com- 
mandments, they  would  not  intermarry  with  for- 
eigners, nor  would  they  buy  or  sell  upon  the 
Sabbath. 

In  spite  of  oath  and  curse  the  people  did  not 
keep  faith.  Nehemiah  found  men  treading  wine- 
presses on  the  Sabbath,  and  others  bringing  asses 
through  the  gates  laden  with  sheaves,  as  well  as 
with  wine  and  grapes  and  figs.  He  called  together 
the  nobles  of  the  people  and  reproached  them  for 
this  sin  of  profanation,  and  tells  them  that  as  their 
fathers  brought  destruction  once  upon  the  city,  so 
they  in  turn  will  meet  the  same  doom  that  follows 
Sabbath  breakers.  The  energetic  puritan  was  not 
content  with  words,  but  on  the  even  before  the 
Sabbath  he  ordered  the  city  gates  to  be  closed,  and 
to  make  sure  he  set  his  own  servants  to  watch  dur- 
ing the  day.  Then  from  the  wall  he  denounced  the 
Tyrian  merchants  who  were  waiting  outside  hoping 
to  enter  as  usual,  and  he  finally  declared  to  them, 
that  if  they  should  appear  again  on  the  Sabbath 
Day  he  himself  would  lay  hands  on  them.  It  is  a 
realistic  story  and  reveals  the  wisdom  of  the  states- 
man as  well  as  the  zeal  of  the  churchman.  The 
sacred  day  was  a  necessity  for  the  sacred  service. 

Later  teachers  of  Israel  elaborated  and  codified 
the  directions  for  the  keeping  of  the  Sabbath,  and 


SACRED   DAYS  209 

made  a  calendar  covering  the  prescribed  feasts  and 
services  of  the  year.  By  this  time  names  were 
given  to  the  other  days,  and  the  seventh  day  of  the 
week  became  the  permanent  Sabbath  except  for  the 
intercalation  required  in  keeping  the  solar  year. 

The  Ark  is  gone,  but  not  the  holy  law.  The 
temple  hill  is  occupied  by  the  shrine  of  a  bastard 
faith  which  has  neither  smoking  altar  nor  gorgeous 
ritual,  but  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath  remains  as 
a  legacy  from  the  Hebrews  to  the  nations  of  the 
world.  It  was  supported  by  priest  and  prophet  and 
ruler  and  seems  to  have  been  so  central  to  the  life 
of  developed  Israel  that  it  survived  every  shock  of 
disaster. 

Beginning  as  a  lunar  mark  of  time  around  which 
grew  Semitic  sacrifices,  perhaps  long  before  the 
Hebrew  people,  with  the  sons  of  Israel  it  grew  into 
definiteness  and  power.  Lunar  feasts  have  been 
known  among  peoples  from  all  races,  but  the  Sab- 
bath with  its  triple  authority  of  worship,  rest,  and 
good  cheer,  had  its  origin  in  Israel. 


14 


CHAPTER   XII 

HEBREW  CONCEPTION   OF   SANCTITY 

In  modern  thought  the  conception  of  sanctity 
has  an  ethical  element.  We  think  of  the  term 
''holiness,"  whether  applied  to  a  person  or  to  an  act, 
as  free  from  wrongdoing.  All  this  is  very  differ- 
ent in  the  development  of  the  religious  history  of 
the  world.  A  truly  ethical  content  in  religion  is 
never  ancient.  Moral  law  reveals  itself  in  early 
times  in  the  form  of  customs  handed  down  from 
generation  to  generation,  and  these  for  the  most 
part  have  to  do  with  the  preservation  of  human  life 
and  the  restraint  of  human  hate.  Rules  of  conduct 
that  were  sacred  within  the  social  group  had  no 
application  to  foreigners  or  strangers.  Even  the 
Ten  Commandments  were  for  the  use  of  Hebrews 
among  Hebrews  and  did  not  govern  their  conduct 
with  people  outside  of  Israel.  The  history  of  the 
social  order  reveals  great  changes  in  the  standards 
of  conduct.  These  were  different  for  different  times 
and  among  different  peoples.  Even  the  most 
fundamental  rights  and  wrongs  vary  among  differ- 
ent peoples.     It  was  quite  general  in  primitive  life 

210 


HEBREW   CONCEPTION   OF   SANCTITY    211 

to  hold  that  the  preservation  of  sex  purity  was  a 
duty  wholly  belonging  to  women,  and  the  thought 
that  only  married  women  were  under  any  obliga- 
tion was  very  widespread.  The  most  primary  and 
universal  moral  laws  relate  to  the  rights  of  prop- 
erty, and  of  necessity  these  grow  more  and  more 
impressive  as  property  increases.  The  rights  of 
property,  however,  grow  out  of  the  necessity  of 
peace  within  the  group.  The  property  of  the 
stranger  was  common  plunder. 

The  idea  of  sanctity  in  Israel  at  the  beginning 
had  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  our  modern  notion 
of  right  and  wrong.  A  surface  reading  of  the  his- 
tory discloses  that  men  held  eminent  for  piety 
violated  nearly  every  one  of  our  modern  standards 
of  conduct.  The  moral  ideals  which  held  rule  in 
Israel  differed  from  age  to  age.  It  will  be  found 
for  the  most  part  these  differences  run  parallel  with 
the  development  of  the  idea  of  God.  We  expect  to 
find  in  the  prophets  a  conception  of  holiness  quite 
different  from  that  recognized  in  the  public  and 
organized  religion.  The  notion  of  sanctity  in  Israel 
consists  fundamentally  in  the  thought  of  a  thing 
set  apart  from  common  use.  The  person  or  the 
deed  either  belongs  to  God,  or,  at  least,  is  separated 
from  the  conduct  of  common  life.  It  will  be  found 
that  the  moral  life  of  Israel  undergoes  change  from 


212  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

what  is  essentially  a  ritual  of  life  to  that  which  be- 
comes an  experience  of  righteousness.  The  stand- 
ards of  Abraham  and  David  are  certainly  not  the 
same  as  those  of  Ezekiel  and  Nehemiah.  It  will 
not  be  possible  to  give  any  complete  account  of- 
these  ethical  changes,  but  there  are  certain  phases 
of  them  that  are  essential  to  the  present  study. 

The  religious  history  of  the  world  does  not  show 
that  one  religion  takes  the  place  of  another.  There 
is  no  clearly  marked  line  between  fetich,  nature, 
worship,  polytheism,  and  monotheism.  Later  relig- 
ions are  always  superimposed  on  earlier  faiths. 
Any  new  faith  to  succeed  must  take  unto  itself  a 
great  many  of  the  precious,  primitive,  and  inherited 
traditions.  The  conqueror  may  make  his  gods  rul- 
ers in  the  pantheon  of  a  subject  people,  but  he  must 
leave  some  niches  for  the  degraded  deities.  The 
pantheon  of  Rome  was  enlarged  to  include  the  chief 
divinities  of  the  empire.  The  history  of  Babylonia 
and  Assyria  shows  changes  in  divine  authority 
which  ran  parallel  to  the  changes  in  human  govern- 
ment. The  general  tendency  of  civilization  is  to 
relieve  itself  of  traditions  no  longer  valuable,  but 
the  process  is  not  rapid.  The  sanctions  of  custom 
are  often  greater  than  the  sanctions  of  law.  The 
student  of  society  must  study  his  problem  in  the 
light  of  the  fact  that  survivals  from  earlier  relig- 


HEBREW   CONCEPTION   OF   SANCTITY    213 

ions  may  be  found  anywhere.  Buddhism  could  not 
make  its  way  in  the  world  without  regard  to  the 
earlier  faiths.  Christianity  must  compromise  with 
both  Judaism  and  Paganism.  No  reformation  has 
ever  been  complete.  The  lingering  infallibilities 
assert  themselves  in  those  communions  which  most 
strongly  protest  individual  freedom  and  responsi- 
bility. In  the  development  of  the  religion  of  Israel 
many  traces  are  to  be  found  of  lower  forms  of 
faith.  The  obvious  struggle  between  the  worship 
of  many  gods  and  the  worship  of  Jehovah  is  only 
one  of  the  facts  that  must  be  considered. 

It  has  already  been  noted  that  peoples  of  a  cer- 
tain level  of  culture  are  likely  to  develop  similar 
institutions.  So  it  happens  that  among  peoples 
separated  both  In  time  and  space  there  are  found 
marked  coincidenceSj  both  In  government  and  in 
religion.  The  altar  is  not  Hebrew.  It  belongs  to 
all  peoples  who  offer  sacrifices.  The  duty  of  build- 
ing a  temple  was  not  given  to  Solomon  alone,  but 
to  every  ruler  who  recognized  the  dignity  of  wor- 
ship and  the  Importance  of  religion. 

One  of  the  most  widespread  and  at  the  same 
time  one  of  the  most  curious  survivals  of  primitive 
faith  Is  what  Is  known  as  the  Taboo.  A  thing 
tabooed  Is  one  that  must  not  be  touched.  Food 
that  is  taboo  is  that  which  must  not  be  eaten.    A 


214  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

taboo  may  be  permanent  or  temporary.  It  seems 
to  have  grown  out  of  the  experiences  of  calamity. 
If  certain  acts  were  done  and  certain  evil  results 
followed,  henceforth  the  acts  which  caused  the  evil 
must  be  avoided.  If  all  evil  experiences  were  to 
become  the  rule,  the  whole  of  life  would  come  to  a 
standstill,  and  so  it  became  necessary  for  custom 
and  law  to  codify  the  prohibitions.  The  taboo 
seems  to  have  been  in  the  first  place  wholly  con- 
nected with  religion.  The  evil  consequences  of 
the  dangerous  act  followed  directly  from  the  doing. 
A  man  who  touched  the  prohibited  object  or  en- 
gaged in  the  prohibited  deed  was  liable  to  disease 
or  sudden  death.  Where  civil  rule  grew  strong, 
the  king  or  chief  imposed  the  taboo.  In  safe  hands 
it  became  a  valuable  aid  to  human  progress.  The 
right  of  property  and  the  duty  of  chastity  were 
made  strong  by  means  of  the  taboo.  In  recent 
times  the  taboo  system  has  been  found  in  full  de- 
velopment in  the  South  Sea  Islands.  Hawaii  fur- 
nishes us  the  word.  But  in  some  form  or  other 
the  taboo  is  so  general  that  some  writers  have  held 
that  it  was  at  the  very  foundation  of  the  religious 
experience  of  the  race.  As  food  offered  In  sacrifice 
to  Jehovah  was  reserved  for  the  priests,  so  among 
the  Sandwich  Islanders  animals  or  fruits  offered  in 
sacrifice  to  the  gods  were  reserved  to  men  and  were 


HEBREW    CONCEPTION   OF    SANCTITY    215 

not  allowed  to  women.  Not  alone  were  the  temples 
and  utensils  of  religion  not  to  be  touched  by  com- 
mon hands,  but  both  the  person  and  the  property 
of  chief  and  priest  were  held  to  be  taboo.  Penal- 
ties, both  from  gods  and  men,  were  meted  out  to 
the  common  man  who  touched  the  thing  sanctified 
or  set  apart  from  common  use.  Persons  in  power 
learned  to  increase  their  property  by  means  of  the 
taboo.  If  a  chief  called  anything  a  part  of  his  per- 
son, it  became  his  own. 

A  taboo  might  be  proclaimed  for  special  pur- 
poses as,  for  example,  when  the  fruit  was  ripe,  or 
it  might  be  proclaimed  for  a  special  time.  A  strict 
taboo  allowed  no  canoe  to  touch  the  waters,  no  fire 
to  burn,  no  person  to  bathe.  It  might  even  go  so 
far  that  no  dog  was  allowed  to  bark  nor  any  cock 
to  crow.  To  carry  out  the  taboo  the  mouth  of  the 
dog  or  cock  was  tied  up.  In  New  Zealand  any 
dead  person  was  taboo,  and  if  a  canoe  carried  a 
corpse,  it  was  never  used  again.  If  a  man  had 
slain  an  enemy,  he  was  taboo  for  ten  days.  A  man 
taboo  could  not  eat  his  food  with  his  hands  ;  he  must 
be  fed  by  others.  This  service  failing,  he  must  eat 
directly  with  his  mouth  like  any  animal.  Among 
many  tribes  women  were  taboo  in  times  of  war, 
and  the  fighting  men  left  them  at  home,  as  one  of 
the  stories  with  respect  to  David  illustrates.     The 


2l6  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

subject  of  taboo  has  been  discussed  by  Spencer, 
Tylor,  Frazer,  and,  more  recently,  by  Reinach. 
Traces  of  the  taboo  are  reported  in  almost  all  coun- 
tries and  it  has  been  used  by  almost  all  religions. 

It  is  also  found  in  modern  life.  Mothers  in  rear- 
ing children  are  not  always  able  to  give  reasons 
why  objects  must  not  be  touched,  but  by  some 
means  or  other  children  are  made  to  understand. 
It  is  still  necessary  to  post  public  signs  "Keep  Off 
the  Grass"  and  canes  and  umbrellas  are  taboo  in 
public  museums  and  art  galleries. 

The  history  of  man  in  the  Bible  opens  with  a 
characteristic  taboo.  The  story  of  Eden  may  have 
been  rewritten  by  some  late  hand  at  some  late  date, 
as  the  critics  affirm,  but  every  student  of  primitive 
culture  will  feel  sure  that  the  substance  of  the  story 
Is  very  ancient.  It  came  from  no  one  man.  It  is 
the  resultant  of  the  meditation  of  a  people  upon 
the  great  problems  of  labor,  sin,  and  death.  The 
difficulties  of  moral  discipline  are  inherent  in  the 
story.  The  Ten  Commandments  are  not  important 
to  a  solitary  pair,  but  In  such  a  garden  a  prohibited 
tree  which  might  not  be'  touched  and  whose  fruit 
might  not  be  eaten  was  a  natural  beginning  to  dis- 
tinctions of  conduct  which  were  to  increase  in  num- 
ber, in  value,  and  In  sanctions  through  all  the  de- 
velopment of  the  race.    The  tree  of  knowledge  was 


HEBREW    CONCEPTION   OF    SANCTITY    217 

profaned  but  the  tree  of  life  was  preserved.  In 
this  case,  as  in  many  others,  the  taboo  was  an  object 
of  value. 

Among  the  Hebrews  the  name  of  Jehovah  be- 
came taboo.  They  would  not  profane  by  speech 
the  sacred  syllables,  and  substituted  for  it  the  word 
Adonai. 

No  hierarchy  can  exist  without  services  and 
places  which  are  prohibited  to  common  men  and 
which  are  reserved  for  the  priests.  The  Ark  of 
Israel  was  taboo  and  when  David  attempted  to 
bring  it  up  to  his  own  city,  the  well-meaning  Uzzah 
was  stricken  dead  because  he  touched  the  Ark  en- 
dangered by  the  jolting  car.  The  Holy  of  Holies 
in  which  the  Ark  rested  at  last  was  the  most  impres- 
sive taboo  in  Israel.  As  the  temple  itself  was  for 
the  priests,  so  at  last  the  Holy  of  Holies  came  to 
be  for  the  high  priest  alone  and  into  it  he  himself 
might  go  but  once  a  year. 

The  people  of  Israel  were  separated  to  Jehovah. 
All  other  gods  were  made  taboo  to  them.  With- 
out a  question  during  a  long  part  of  their  history 
they  believed  in  the  existence  and  power  of  other 
gods,  and  often  fell  into  idolatry,  but  this  was  the 
violation  of  a  taboo  and  great  penalties  were  ex- 
acted. In  Israel  there  was  a  holy  tribe.  It  was  the 
tribe  of  Levi  which  was  separated  unto  the  Lord. 


2i8  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

It  was  not  that  the  Levites  were  better  than  other 
men  and  no  modern  sense  must  be  read  into  their 
sanctification.  They  were  chosen  for  a  special 
work  and  they  represented  all  Israel  in  the  sacred 
duties.  A  similar  doctrine  is  not  unknown  to 
recent  times,  when  the  character  of  the  priest  is 
regarded  as  of  no  great  importance.  It  is  the  office 
that  is  holy  and  his  duties  in  performing  the  ritual 
are  quite  apart  from  his  private  life. 

There  were  some  religious  bodies  which  were 
separatists  from  the  rest  of  Israel  in  a  particular 
manner.  The  Nazarites  by  special  vows  were  sep- 
arated from  the  rest  of  the  people  for  the  service 
of  Jehovah.  It  is  easy  to  understand  the  prohibi- 
tion to  avoid  the  use  of  wine  and  strong  drink,  but 
why  were  they  forbidden  to  eat  grapes,  fresh  or 
dry,  and  why  might  not  the  Nazarites  touch  any- 
thing of  the  grape,  even  from  the  kernel  to  the 
husk?  We  are  dealing  here  with  something  very 
ancient.  While  under  his  vows  the  Nazarite  sep- 
arated unto  Jehovah  was  holy,  but  his  holiness  had 
no  ethical  significance.  Because  he  was  holy  he 
must  let  the  hair  of  his  head  grow  long.  He  might 
not  go  near  to  a  dead  body,  even  though  it  were 
that  of  his  father  or  his  mother,  because  his  sep- 
aration unto  God  is  upon  his  head.  During  the 
time  for  which  the  vows  were  made  he  could  not 


HEBREW   CONCEPTION   OF    SANCTITY    219 

attend  even  his  mother's  funeral.  This  is  a  kind 
of  hoHness  which  no  modern  mind  can  understand. 

A  dead  person  was  taboo.  The  contact  with  the 
corpse  made  a  person  taboo  though  it  was  not  a 
question  of  actual  pollution,  even  of  the  flesh,  for 
however  much  he  might  wash  in  water,  the  record 
nearly  always  stands  "He  shall  be  unclean  until 
evening."  It  was  not  an  actual  filth,  but  it  was 
ceremonial.  In  effect  it  was  a  penance  appointed 
for  an  improper  deed.  In  New  Guinea  there  is 
precisely  the  same  taboo  among  natives,  even  until 
this  day. 

Another  subject  which  must  hold  our  attention 
is  the  relation  of  the  totem  to  religious  history. 
The  totem  pole  is  usually  composed  of  three  figures, 
partly  animal  and  partly  human.  The  totem  itself 
is  the  sacred  animal  of  a  particular  family  or  clan, 
which  is  supported  at  the  top  of  the  totem  pole. 
The  word  "totem"  is  furnished  by  the  American 
Indians.  The  totem  itself  is  more  widespread  than 
the  totem  pole  and  the  underlying  ideas  are  of  the 
greatest  significance.  The  totem  is  founded  upon 
the  idea  that  certain  animals  have  special  relations 
with  certain  groups  of  men.  These  relations  are 
vital  to  human  interests  and  so  take  on  a  religious 
form.  Among  many  peoples  the  totem  animal  was 
regarded  as  the  ancestor  of  the  clan.     The  totem 


220  RELIGION   IN    THE    MAKING 

animal  is  not  to  be  killed  or  eaten.  The  religion  of 
old  Egypt  developed  perhaps  to  its  fullest  extent 
the  doctrine  of  the  relation  of  human  and  divine 
meeting  in  the  animal  world.  The  wolf  of  Athens 
was  buried,  like  the  gazelle  of  Arabia,  if  it  was 
accidentally  killed,  with  the  same  honors  as  though 
it  were  a  member  of  the  clan.  The  sacred  animal 
may  not  be  killed  except  under  necessity  and  even 
then  it  is  regarded  as  practically  a  murder.  Frazer 
reports  a  California  tribe  which  renders  worship  to 
the  buzzard  and  celebrates  a  feast  annually  by 
killing  the  buzzard  without  the  loss  of  a  drop  of 
blood.  They  preserve  his  feathers  in  order  to  make 
a  sacred  vestment  for  their  medicine-men.  They 
bury  the  body  in  sacred  earth  amidst  the  lamenta- 
tions of  old  women.  It  seems  not  to  have  been 
unusual  to  have  an  occasional  sacrifice  of  the  totem 
animal  which  was  protected  all  the  rest  of  the  year. 
By  eating  a  piece  of  the  flesh  under  special  emer- 
gencies, it  was  thought  that  divine  strength  might 
be  obtained.  Among  some  peoples  other  than  the 
California  Indians  the  feathers  or  skin  of  the 
totem  animal  were  used  In  religious  ceremonies. 

The  totem  Idea  seems  so  strange  to  the  civilized 
man  that  It  Is  almost  Impossible  to  place  ourselves 
In  an  understanding  m.ood.  It  may  assist  us  to 
remember  that  Just  as  the  totem  pole  protected  the 


HEBREW    CONCEPTION   OF    SANCTITY    221 

dwelling,  as  the  totem  figure  was  often  tattooed 
upon  the  body  or  painted  upon  the  clothing,  so  we 
have  among  the  sanctities  of  modern  life  a  very 
close  resemblance.  Who  can  explain  the  distinction 
which  America  gives  to  the  eagle,  England  to  the 
lion  and  Russia  to  the  bear  ?  The  totem  figure  was 
often  borne  into  battle  like  a  flag. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  prepare  us  for  the  dis- 
crimination of  the  Hebrews  between  the  clean  and 
the  unclean  in  the  animal  life.  How  ancient  this 
was  we  do  not  know.  It  is  quite  certain  that  it  did 
not  belong  to  the  later  development  of  Israel,  but 
was  rather  a  survival  from  very  early  times.  In 
the  stories  of  Genesis  are  many  interesting  ex- 
amples, but  none  more  so  than  the  suggestion  that 
Noah  was  bidden  to  recognize  the  clean  and  the 
unclean  animals  by  number  as  he  went  into  the 
ark.  Unfortunately  we  are  given  no  list  of  either 
class.  In  the  later  law  certain  animals  were  pre- 
scribed as  clean  and  as  unclean,  and  those  that  part 
the  hoof  and  chew  the  cud  were  to  be  eaten  and 
other  beasts  were  to  be  unclean.  Specifically, 
camels,  hares,  rock  badgers  and  swine  were  pro- 
hibited. The  law  proceeds  to  specify  that  creatures 
from  the  water  must  have  fins  and  scales,  and  so 
on  through  a  discussion  of  things  fit  for  food  (Lev. 
xi.).    There  seems  to  be  neither  sanitary  nor  ethical 


222  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

reasons  underlying  these  prohibitions  though  a 
number  of  them  appeal  to  us.  There  seems  no 
special  reason  why  swine  should  be  prohibited  as 
food  save  on  account  of  their  rather  filthy  habits, 
but  in  this  respect  the  fowl  is  quite  as  much  a 
scavenger  as  the  pig.  Plutarch  intimates  that  the 
Jewish  reason  for  abstaining  from  swine  flesh  was 
because  the  pig  was  held  to  be  a  sacred  animal. 
Of  this,  however,  there  is  no  trace  in  the  Bible. 
The  civilized  instinct  rejects  without  any  apparent 
reason  certain  animals  which  seem  to  be  well 
adapted  for  food.  The  entire  law  of  clean  and 
unclean,  both  for  common  men  and  for  priests, 
indicates  that  it  is  ceremonial  rather  than  real,  just 
as  sanctification  had  in  it  no  true  ethical  idea,  for 
a  field  or  an  animal  might  be  sanctified  unto  Jehovah 
just  as  truly  as  a  man. 

The  evident  changes  in  the  standards  of  truth- 
fulness, chastity,  honor  and  honesty  are  manifold. 
Abraham,  the  father  of  the  faithful,  and  David,  the 
man  after  God's  own  heart,  would  neither  of  them 
do  for  modern  saints.  It  is  not  until  later  times 
that  the  relation  between  conduct  and  character 
became  evident. 

The  priest  was  holy,  Jerusalem  was  holy,  and 
Zion  holy,  because  they  were  the  places  of  sacred 
services  and  the  dwelling  place  of  Jehovah.    In  the 


HEBREW   CONCEPTION   OF    SANCTITY    223 

ritual  sacrifice  of  Israel  there  was  no  element  of 
holiness  as  we  understand  it.  In  the  altar  sacrifices 
the  people  felt  that  they  were  giving  something  of 
value  to  God,  as  it  seems  likely  in  the  earlier  sacri- 
fices they  were  having  a  mystic  form  of  communion 
with  God.  But  the  time  was  sure  to  come  when 
something  more  was  needed  than  this  sense  of  sep- 
aration to  express  the  requirements  of  human 
conduct. 

As  the  conception  of  the  holiness  of  God  took  on 
forms  that  have  been  permanent  among  men  in  the 
voices  of  the  prophets  and  singers  of  the  later  cen- 
turies, we  find  also  that  social  righteousness  assumes 
new  forms.  This  is  the  essential  reason  why  fasts 
and  feasts  are  decried  by  the  prophets.  Forms  of 
worship,  however  noble,  are  not  enough.  The 
exactions  of  the  strong,  the  tyrannies  of  the  rich, 
the  brutalities  of  princes  and  the  corruptions  of 
life  are  denounced  in  burning  words  such  as  might 
well  be  used  to-day  against  the  sins  of  modern 
society.  The  service  of  Jehovah  must  now  manifest 
Itself  in  rectitude  of  life  and  in  the  fulfilment  of 
social  obligations. 

Ezekiel,  priest  as  he  was,  shuddered  because  of 
the  unclean  animals  that  he  found  in  his  temple 
vision,  but  Zechariah  declares  that  holiness  unto 
the  Lord  is  not  a  thing  which  belongs  to  those  ob- 


^24  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

jects  and  services  which  have  been  known  as  sacred. 
Sanctity  is  not  a  property  of  those  things  set  apart 
from  common  use.  He  looks  forward  to  the  time 
when  the  things  most  secular  shall  become  sacred, 
hence  he  declares,  "In  that  time  shall  there  be  upon 
the  bells  of  the  horses  Holiness  unto  the  Lord  and 
the  pots  in  the  Lord's  house  shall  be  like  the  bowls 
before  the  altar"  (Zech.  xiv.  20). 

Joel,  Indeed,  teaches  a  future  for  Jerusalem  when 
both  city  and  temple  mountain  shall  be  holy  be- 
cause no  strangers  shall  pass  through  the  streets, 
but  Isaiah  sings  in  nobler  terms :  "One  cried  unto 
another  and  said,  Holy,  Holy,  Holy  is  the  Lord  of 
hosts.  The  whole  earth  is  full  of  his  glory."  The 
priest  might  deal  with  ceremonial  uncleanness.  He 
might  keep  the  mother  out  of  the  sanctuary  for  a 
month  because  the  sacred  function  had  unfitted  her 
for  worship,  but  the  prophet  knew  how  to  sing  and 
how  to  characterize  uncleanness.  Purity  was  to  be 
had  not  by  formal  rules  but  by  coming  in  contact 
with  the  Ever-Living  and  the  All-Cleansing  God. 
Life  must  exhibit  a  moral  heroism.  Every  religion 
has  to  deal  with  conduct.  It  prescribes  things  to 
be  done  and  things  to  be  left  undone,  and  all  these 
prescriptions  were  as  schoolmasters  leading  to  the 
higher  law.  For  Isaiah  the  time  came  when  the 
clean  and  the  unclean  of  the  traditional  law  would 


HEBREW  CONCEPTION  OF  SANCTITY 


225 


no  longer  serve.  Ritual  indeed  might  continue 
and  make  itself  perfect  in  future  generations,  but 
in  the  development  of  conduct  men  came  more  and 
more  to  long  for  realities.  To  deal  justly  and  to 
love  mercy  were  more  than  altars  and  stone.  Once 
again,  the  rising  tide  of  life  found  expression 
through  prophetic  voices.  The  law  of  Jehovah 
must  become  ennobled  as  the  character  of  Jehovah 
became  more  fully  recognized.  It  was  inevitable 
that  the  judge  of  the  whole  earth  must  do  right 
and  nothing  less  than  righteousness  in  man  would 
He  exact.  Taboo  and  Totem  were  servants  of  the 
Lord  in  the  beginnings  of  human  conduct.  They 
trained  men  to  discrimination.  They  aided  men  to 
measure  fields,  to  recognize  property,  to  construct 
homes.  But  they  were  servants  of  the  Lord,  while 
men  were  on  the  march  to  the  dignity  of  loftier 
conceptions.  The  time  was  to  come  when  the  law 
of  God  should  reveal  itself  in  a  more  perfect  man- 
ner. Not  alone  in  moral  precept  nor  in  prophet's 
scorn,  but  in  the  hymns  of  the  people  also  was  this 
truth  to  be  found.  So  the  spiritual  nature  of  the 
requirements  of  God  are  finally  sung:  "The  law  of 
Jehovah  is  perfect,  restoring  the  soul.  The  pre- 
cepts of  Jehovah  are  right,  rejoicing  the  heart.  The 
fear  of  Jehovah  is  clean,  enduring  forever.  The 
ordinances  of  Jehovah  are  true  and  righteous  alto- 
gether" (Psa.  xix.). 
15 


CHAPTER  XIII 
SOME  RESULTANT  CONCLUSIONS 

The  great  body  of  religious  facts  contained  in 
the  Old  Testament  can  be  grouped  under  a  few 
heads.  Besides,  these  classes  of  facts  show  inti- 
mate connection.  Where  facts,  whether  social  or 
physical,  can  be  grouped,  science  may  arise.  Where 
there  are  recurrent  sequences,  it  may  be  conjec- 
tured that  facts  are  governed  by  law.  Classes  of 
facts  in  the  same  realm  of  human  experience  in 
one  social  group  may  be  compared  with  similar 
classes  of  facts  in  another  social  group.  This  con- 
clusion shows  the  possibility  of  a  science  of  religion. 

No  one  is  more  aware  of  the  incompleteness  of 
the  study  presented  in  this  work  than  the  author. 
Nor  is  the  genetic  process  in  every  class  of  facts 
clearly  evident  in  every  stage  of  the  Hebrew  his- 
tory. May  it  be  asked,  however,  that  possible 
critics  will  consider  that  since  the  process  is  shown 
in  these  different  classes  of  facts,  and  in  some  of 
them  quite  completely,  the  argument  for  no  one  of 
the  chapters  stands  by  itself,  and  the  connection  of 
worship,  sacred  persons,  sacred  places,  and  sacred 
226 


SOME   RESULTANT   CONCLUSIONS        227 

services,  is  so  intimate  that  where  a  process  is 
clearly  shown  in  one  of  them,  it  may  rightly  be 
presupposed  in  the  other  connected  systems  of  facts. 
In  other  words,  the  argument  is  cumulative. 

A  separate  study  might  have  been  made  of  the 
religious  laws,  but  it  is  scarcely  necessary,  since  they 
come  out  in  the  topics  that  have  been  presented. 
We  are  accustomed  to  think  of  canon  and  civil 
law  as  distinct  departments.  It  was  not  so  among 
the  Hebrews  any  more  than  it  was  among  some 
other  ancient  peoples,  and  we  must  not  project  too 
many  of  our  modern  ideas  backward  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  our  historic  perspective.  The  "Law  of 
Moses"  became  a  current  phrase  in  Israel.  We 
have  seen  the  processes  of  religion  grow  and  there 
IS  no  doubt  that  the  code  grew  also.  Distinct 
changes  were  made  in  the  ritual  service  and  it  was 
completed  late  in  the  history.  We  are  able  to  note 
the  growth  of  the  Sabbath  law  as  though  it  were 
under  our  very  eyes.  It  was  not  finally  formulated 
until  after  the  books  of  the  Bible  were  written. 
Some  indications  of  the  growth  and  changes  of 
law  leave  room  at  once  for  the  supposition  that 
the  code  of  Moses  grew  as  the  times  required. 
This  is  true  of  every  living  form  of  law  in  every 
land.  The  code  of  a  state  or  the  statutes  of  a  na- 
tion do  not  cease  to  remain  the  central  authority 


228  RELIGION   IN    THE    MAKING 

because  of  additions  and  amendments.  That  is  the 
way  in  which  they  keep  their  authority.  Nor  was 
the  phrase  the  ''Law  of  Moses"  in  any  sense  ever 
a  pious  fraud.  The  Jews  beHeved  that  IMoses  gave 
the  first  structure  to  the  government.  It  could  not 
have  remained  unchanged  throughout  all  the  gen- 
erations, like  a  petrified  wonder  from  the  desert  of 
the  wanderings.  Neither  the  code  of  Justinian  nor 
the  code  Napoleon  was  written  by  the  man  whose 
name  it  bears.  And  yet  the  historic  relation  of 
each  man  with  his  work  was  real  enough  to  entitle 
him  to  the  honor  of  the  production.  How  many  of 
the  statutes  found  in  the  different  books  were 
codified  by  Moses  we  do  not  know,  and  even  should 
it  prove  that  there  are  several  codes  and  that  these 
were  handed  down  from  different  sources,  it  by- 
no  means  follows  that  there  is  not  in  each  of  the 
codes  material  that  Moses  himself  gave  to  his  peo- 
ple. The  constitution  of  Israel,  however,  belongs 
to  a  discussion  of  the  form  of  its  state. 

The  early  stories  of  Genesis  will,  I  think,  be 
found  by  every  scientific  mind  to  bear  traces  of 
great  antiquity,  no  matter  when  they  took  their 
present  form.  The  story  of  William  Tell  was  not 
created  by  Schiller,  nor  yet  by  Goethe  whose  notes 
were  used  in  its  production,  but  is  thought  by 
literary  students  to  be  a  world-old  story  presented 


SOME   RESULTANT    CONCLUSIONS 


229 


under  modern  forms.  Such  stories  as  the  Garden, 
and  Babel,  and  the  Flood,  as  well  as  the  quarrel  of 
Cain  and  Abel,  bear  the  marks  of  hoary  antiquity. 
It  is  probable  that  they  could  not  even  have  been 
conceived  so  late  in  the  history  as  the  period  of 
Moses.  Some  persons  speak  of  the  Book  of 
Judges  as  though  it  were  a  collection  of  unhistor- 
ical  tales  put  together  late  in  Hebrew  history.  The 
thing  is  impossible.  The  hero  stories  are  precisely 
the  same  stuff  as  the  hero  stories  that  lie  at  the 
beginning  of  all  nations  whose  early  histories  have 
been  studied.  They  may  be  so  rem.ote  from  us  that 
in  some  cases  we  cannot  even  tell  what  deep  and 
true  meaning  they  disclosed  to  those  who  loved 
them  and  put  them  into  their  sacred  scriptures. 
For  us  it  is  enough  to  remember  that  the  Book  of 
Judges  is  to  the  student  of  the  science  of  society  as 
great  a  delight  as  a  fresh  cliff  tossed  by  some  earth- 
quake would  be  to  a  geologist  should  he  discover 
in  the  fossils  the  remains  of  rare  species  hitherto 
unknown  to  the  museums  of  the  world. 

It  may  not  be  readily  admitted  that  the  history 
of  the  idea  of  God  falls  into  four  distinct  periods, 
that  of  the  Patriarchs,  of  Moses,  of  the  early  kings, 
and  of  the  prophets.  No  one  supposes  that  the 
periods  were  distinct.  One  period  flows  into  an- 
other.    The  thoughts  of  one  period  survive  to  a 


230  RELIGION  IN  THE  MAKING 

later  date,  just  as  remote  peasants,  both  in  Britain 
and  in  Germany,  are  said  to  still  pray  both  to  God 
and  to  the  Devil,  not  knowing  which  will  have  the 
upper  hand.  This  is  certainly  a  religious  survival 
which  does  not  belong  to  the  faith  which  the  peas- 
ants profess.  No  scientific  man  would  doubt  that 
commands  were  uttered  in  the  name  of  Jehovah 
which  came  only  from  mistaken  human  lips.  The 
early  Jehovah  was  so  unpitying  and  implacable  that 
we  can  scarcely  understand  how  at  last  He  came  to 
be  like  a  Father  pitying  His  children. 

It  may  be  urged,  and  with  some  show  of  reason, 
that  the  fire  symbol  for  the  Jehovah  of  the  wan- 
derings is  overworked  in  the  discussion,  and  it  may 
be  urged  that  with  a  little  industry  it  might  have 
been  made  to  appear  that  He  was  also  the  God  of 
the  clouds  and  of  the  rain.  Where  there  is  poly- 
theism, it  is  easy  enough  to  furnish  as  many  gods  as 
are  required  by  the  experiences  of  life,  and  in  the 
wealth  of  oriental  imagery  many  moods  of  the 
divine  being  are  interpreted  under  many  figures, 
but  the  fire  sym.bol  is  the  most  persistent  as  it  is 
the  most  revealing  representation. 

Let  it  be  remembered  also  that  the  development 
of  the  idea  of  God  was  a  matter  of  social  interest 
and  was  not  a  personal  affair.  So  far  as  Israel  was 
concerned  He  was  the  God  of  the  people,  and  when 


SOME   RESULTANT   CONCLUSIONS        231 

Israel  was  smitten  He  was  the  God  of  the  remnant 
who  should  be  gathered  and  made  a  great  nation. 
Of  the  personal  fatherhood  of  God  for  the  indivi- 
dual, there  is  scarce  a  trace  in  the  Old  Testament. 
To  certain  minds  the  distinction  of  sanctity  as 
ceremonial  and  not  real  in  the  earlier  history  may 
come  with  something  of  a  shock.  Yet  the  develop- 
ment of  moral  ideals  is  one  of  the  commonplaces 
of  all  human  history.  The  strange  survival  of  the 
scapegoat  found  in  the  late  code  must  seem  re- 
markable to  those  not  familiar  with  the  part  which 
animals  play  in  the  development  of  religions.  The 
taboo  as  a  correct  name  for  many  facts  in  the  Old 
Testament  may  be  questioned,  but  it  can  hardly  be 
questioned  by  those  who  have  learned  that  some 
Russian  peasants  will  refuse  to  eat  a  dove  because 
they  regard  it  as  a  continuing  symbol  of  the  divine 
presence. 

It  may  perhaps  be  fairly  said  that  my  treatment 
of  the  prophet  is  more  favorable  to  his  order  than 
my  treatment  of  the  priest.  I  think  that  is  true. 
Even  when  one  knows  that  certain  things  are  mat- 
ters of  temperament  it  is  sometimes  hard  to  avoid 
them.  While  all  that  has  been  said  of  the  prophets 
I  believe  to  be  true,  it  is  certainly  possible  that  more 
might  be  said  in  favor  of  the  priest.  The  priest 
stands  for  institutions  and  the  social  order.     No 


232 


RELIGION   IN    THE    MAKING 


teacher  of  social  science  can  question  the  educative 
value  of  institutions.  They  are  the  only  means 
by  which  we  save  the  mental  and  social  wealth  of 
ancient  times  and  transmit  them  to  ages  yet  to  be. 
As  the  custodian  of  the  past  and  as  a  teacher  of  the 
present,  the  priest  under  every  religion  is  the  most 
valuable  of  men.  To  a  developed  and  organized 
religion  the  priest  is  not  only  valuable,  he  is  neces- 
sary. Without  him  there  can  be  no  ascertained 
body  of  belief,  no  prescribed  rules  of  conduct,  no 
maintenance  of  holy  traditions.  As  a  rule  the  priest 
in  the  developmient  of  religion  has  been  not  the 
author  of  superstition  but  the  enemy  of  it.  Super- 
stitions he  mxay  cherish,  but  these  must  be  recog- 
nized, authoritative,  and  sufficiently  few  in  num- 
ber. And  so  among  every  people  there  has  been  a 
great  mass  of  folk-lore,  legends,  and  also  super- 
natural beings  which  have  been  entirely  unrecog- 
nized by  the  organized  religion.  They  have  been 
cast  out  by  the  leaders  of  society  as  unfit  for  pres- 
ervation. But  these  orphan  children  of  the  imagi- 
nation have  not  infrequently  been  very  dear  to  the 
loving  hearts  of  the  common  people. 

The  prophet  plays  a  difficult  role  in  history  and 
very  much  depends  upon  him.  Without  new 
thought  there  can  be  no  new  expression  of  life.  He 
deals  with  the  untried.    The  same  people  who  listen 


SOME   RESULTANT    CONCLUSIONS 


233 


with  attention  to  the  priest  are  ready  to  stone  the 
prophet,  but  it  is  not  enough  to  get  himself  stoned 
or  to  have  built  for  him  afterward  a  costly  sepul- 
cher.  The  words  of  the  prophet  must  be  tried  in 
the  furnace  of  affliction  and  only  those  messages 
which  are  able  to  survive  all  tests  and  which  are  at 
last  woven  into  the  social  fabric  of  the  future 
possess  any  value. 

It  is  time  to  sum  up  the  general  results  of  the 
Hebrew  religious  development,  and  to  ask  what 
legacy  of  permanent  character  these  people  left  to 
the  world. 

Their  greatest  gift  and  the  greatest  possession 
which  ever  came  to  the  world  from  any  source  is 
the  thought  of  one  God.  If,  as  it  seems,  they  com- 
menced with  very  narrow  notions  of  the  Divine 
Being,  limited  and  passionate  like  themselves,  the 
quest  after  Him  becomes  even  more  pathetic  and 
heroic.  From  time  to  time  the  illuminating  man 
was  born  among  them  who  added  something  of 
power  and  dignity  to  that  which  they  had  con- 
ceived. It  must  never  he  forgotten  that  it  was  no 
theoretical  or  scholastic  pursuit  of  a  great  subject. 
The  thought  of  God  was  a  working  theory  of  prac- 
tical life,  for  the  individual,  indeed,  but  chiefly  for 
the  nation.  He  was  not  dethroned  as  many  another 
deity  has  been  by  the  defeat  of  his  people.     It  was 


234  RELIGION   IN   THE   MAKING 

precisely  at  the  moment  of  the  greatest  humiliation 
of  Israel  that  the  thought  of  God  broadened, 
deepened,  and  widened,  until  it  filled  the  universe 
and  ordered  the  destiny  of  the  nations. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  consider  what  changes 
the  idea  of  God  has  undergone  since  the  days  of 
the  Hebrews,  but  fundamentally  the  monotheism 
of  the  world  is  the  monotheism  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets. 

If  we  consider  the  history  of  culture,  this  relig- 
ious development  is  the  great  miracle  of  human  his- 
tory. Outside  of  their  religious  life  and  literature, 
the  Hebrews  would  be  unnoticed  among  the  na- 
tions of  antiquity.  In  almost  every  way  inferior  to 
the  nations  that  surrounded  them,  they  are  greatly 
distanced  by  both  Egypt  and  Greece  in  all  that 
exhibits  human  intellect.  Aristotle,  indeed,  could 
furnish  arguments  for  the  being  of  God  which 
stimulated  the  labors  of  theologians  centuries  after- 
ward, but  in  the  history  of  Greece  there  were  no 
chapters  written  in  blood  and  tears  because  of 
philosophical  monotheism.  This  Jehovah  was  the 
God  of  good  and  evil,  of  life  and  death,  of  riches 
and  poverty,  who  rewarded  them  when  they  did 
well,  who  punished  them  when  they  did  wrong, 
and  who  went  with  them  through  all  the  manifold 
struggles  of  their  nation^s  life. 


SOME  RESULTANT  CONCLUSIONS       ^35 

Of  the  intellectual  form  in  which  they  robed  this 
great  conception  there  is  little  that  need  to  be  said. 
There  were  no  formal  explanations,  there  was  no 
orderly  category  of  attributes.  Not  a  single  phil- 
osophical argument  is  found  anywhere.  The  idea 
of  God  had  cost  them  too  much  for  speech.  It  was 
the  only  incontestable  treasure  which  they  held 
after  the  weary  centuries.  At  the  beginning  the 
clan  god  may  have  partaken  with  them  of  a  com- 
mon meal,  as  was  the  case  in  the  sacrifices  of  other 
Semites.  At  last  they  had  a  God  who  shared  with 
them  in  every  fortune  and  misfortune,  who  bore 
their  sorrows  and  carried  their  afflictions.  He  was 
the  constant  sharer  of  their  life. 

Though  this  conquest  of  the  idea  of  God  was 
religious  and  not  intellectual,  it  has  had  a  more  tre- 
mendous influence  upon  the  intellect  of  the  world 
than  all  other  ancient  thoughts  combined.  Modem 
knowledge  is  only  to-day  beginning  to  spell  out 
the  meaning  of  the  word  "unity."  Before  science 
furnished  us  with  a  Cosmos,  He  who  was  God  from 
everlasting,  before  the  mountains  were  brought 
forth  or  ever  the  earth  and  the  world  were  made, 
was  the  sufficient  ground  for  every  possible  unity 
of  modern  science  and  philosophy.  Since  the  days 
of  the  Hebrews  the  intellectual  effort  of  the  world 


236  RELIGION   IN    THE    MAKING 

has  largely  put  its  stress  into  an  effort  to  apply 
the  idea  of  God  to  all  phases  of  human  inquiry. 

Not  only  has  nature  come  into  order  and  unity 
because  there  is  one  God,  but  the  world  of  men 
feels  the  throb  of  a  common  life.  If  there  is  one 
God  and  Father  of  us  all,  then  the  human  race  is 
one.  If  the  human  race  be  one,  its  common  inter- 
ests have  particular  value  for  every  individual  and 
for  every  people.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  the 
philanthropic  interest  is  as  much  the  offspring  of 
the  idea  of  God  as  are  the  great  intellectual 
conclusions. 

The  second  contribution  of  the  Hebrews  to  the 
life  of  the  world  is  its  standard  of  righteousness. 
As  they  discovered  that  God  Himself  was  righteous, 
so  at  last  they  came  to  understand  that  those  who 
would  live  in  peaceful  fellowship  with  Him,  must 
also  be  righteous.  The  social  structure  for  their 
religion  led  to  social  conceptions  of  righteousness. 
Sins  against  the  family,  as  well  as  sins  in  the  busi- 
ness world,  the  wretched  greed  of  the  rich  and 
strong,  as  well  as  the  failure  to  worship,  were  part 
of  the  standard  of  conduct.  God  had  put  Himself 
under  law  and  man  must  also  live  under  law. 
Search  the  standards  of  any  other  people  and  their 
views  of  conduct  have  no  modern  meaning,  but  the 
pages  of  the  prophets  might  be  wet  with  fresh  tears 


SOME    RESULTANT    CONCLUSIONS         237 

because  of  the  sorrows  of  the  broken  and  the  fallen 
in  our  midst.  They  not  only  ring  true,  but  they 
also  furnish  the  loftiest  conceptions  of  life  that  the 
world  has  yet  known. 

Institutions  come  and  go.  They  furnish  a  tab- 
ernacle for  some  great  idea,  and  by  and  by,  rent 
and  torn,  they  are  cast  aside  and  the  idea  moves  on 
to  new  dwelling  places.  The  institutions  of  the 
Hebrews  are  not  of  special  significance  except  for 
the  nature  of  the  soul  that  lived  within  them.  There 
is  one  institution,  however,  which  is  an  exception, 
and  their  Holy  Sabbath  is  the  most  formal  contri- 
bution made  by  the  Hebrews  to  the  institutions  of 
the  world.  Other  people  had  times  and  deeds 
which  they  called  holy,  but  it  was  given  to  this 
people  to  consecrate  one  seventh  of  their  time  to 
public  worship  and  to  private  devotion.  The  great 
day  meant  rest,  reverence,  and  delight.  This  con- 
tribution has  come  to  the  modern  world.  We  have 
not  carefully  kept  the  treasure  that  has  been  handed 
down  to  us,  but  we  have  learned  to  buttress  the 
institution  by  all  the  arguments  based  upon  business 
success,  rational  hygiene,  and  practical  sagacity. 

There  is  also  a  gift  in  the  substance  of  the 
Hebrew  religion  which  has  come  from  them  rather 
than  from  any  other  source.  It  is  the  idealization 
of  the  doctrine  of  sacrifice.     The  earlier  thought 


238  RELIGION   IN    THE    MAKING 

of  sacrifice  was  communion  with  God  and  the  later 
thought  was  giving  to  Him  something  of  value  as  a 
token  of  obligation  for  benefits  received.  But  it 
was  among  the  Hebrews  themselves  that  the  idea 
of  sacrifice  was  transformed  and  exalted.  They 
learned  to  oflfer  the  sacrifice  of  righteousness  and 
that  the  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken  spirit.  Their 
prophets  taught  them  that  the  Lord  desired  mercy 
and  not  sacrifice,  and  so  it  came  to  pass  that  even 
the  ritual  of  their  religion  meant  for  those  who 
were  instructed  and  inspired  only  the  symbol  of 
great  spiritual  realities.  Thus  understood,  sacri- 
fice also  has  become  one  of  the  chief  admirations  of 
the  modern  mind. 

There  is  a  deeper  question  that  in  the  religious 
debates  of  the  times  constantly  recurs.  To  shape 
it  in  conformity  with  our  task  may  be  stated  thus: 
What  relation  has  this  religious  experience  of  the 
Hebrew  people  to  final  realities?  Suppose  this 
Hebrew  did  think  noble  thoughts ! — Is  there  any- 
thing in  the  final  essence  of  things  that  corresponds 
to  his  ideas?  He  thought  conduct  was  important, 
but  does  the  deed  of  a  man  have  anything  like  the 
serious  import  that  he  would  have  us  believe?  He 
teaches  us  about  a  God,  but  is  there  any  being  who 
receives  his  prayers  or  listens  to  his  psalms  ?  Does 
the   Hebrew   faith  have  any  validity   for  positive 


SOME   RESULTANT   CONCLUSIONS        239 

science  beyond  any  other  faith?  These  are  some 
of  the  questions  that  must  be  heard  and  answered. 
It  is  particularly  important  for  us  to  find  out 
whether  the  genetic  process  in  history  which  we 
call  progress  has  any  place  for  that  which  is  eternal, 
valid  and  real.  It  is  one  of  the  commonplaces  of 
philosophy  to  say  that  man  corresponds  with  his 
universe.  But  it  is  not  common  to  see  the  limi- 
tations of  this  statement  or  to  follow  it  to  its 
conclusions. 

In  the  world  of  perception  we  discover  at  last  that 
eye  and  ear  can  be  trusted.  We  have  learned  to 
measure  distances ;  we  know  how  to  use  our  hands ; 
we  find  that  the  flesh  is  cunningly  devised  to  meet 
the  requirements  of  our  daily  needs;  the  world 
answers  to  our  senses.  But  it  is  not  the  individual 
experience  that  can  be  trusted.  It  is  the  social  ex- 
perience. The  eccentric  individual  must  be  balanced 
by  the  soundness  of  the  social  whole.  So  it  happens 
that  the  instructed  child  sees  and  hears  and  handles 
as  he  has  been  bidden.  The  experiences  of  old 
generations  are  born  again  in  him. 

As  men  increase  in  experience  and  In  wisdom, 
they  find  that  the  world  responds  to  them  in  a 
way  in  which  it  has  not  done  to  their  ancestors.  A 
citizen  of  the  Athens  of  Pericles  coming  into  any 
modern   town   would   have    difficulty   in   believing 


240  RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 

that  all  the  resources  for  human  comfort  that  have 
been  discovered  and  applied  were  really  existent  in 
his  own  time,  but  were  not  used.  It  is  not  in 
human  notions  about  things  that  we  find  reality, 
but  it  is  in  relations  between  man  and  his  world. 
The  final  proof  of  any  machine  is  that  it  will  do 
the  work  for  which  it  has  been  made.  The  final 
scientific  proof  of  value  is  the  capacity  to  survive. 
Color,  form,  and  sound  are  three  permanent  sensa- 
tions from  which  the  normal  body  cannot  escape. 
In  like  manner  God,  Immortality,  and  Retribution 
are  words  which  contain  a  psychical  content  from 
which  no  social  group  in  the  history  of  human  life 
has  ever  been  able  to  escape.  The  senses  corre- 
spond to  the  physical  world  sufficiently  for  us  to 
work  by  them  and  accomplish  our  tasks,  but  these 
great  psychical  forces  bring  us  into  correspondence 
with  a  world  other  than  that  of  the  senses,  and  have 
been  of  sublime  import  in  the  history  of  the  race. 

Three  artists  paint  a  landscape,  each  from  a  dif- 
ferent point  of  view.  The  pictures  are  different 
but  the  landscape  remains  the  same.  The  history 
of  every  religion  contains  an  interpretation,  up  to 
the  measure  of  the  capacity  of  its  time  and  its 
people,  of  what  no  doubt  are  greater  realities  than 
those  disclosed  by  color  or  form.  Every  religion 
has  just  as  much  truth  in  it  as  its  correctness  of 


SOME   RESULTANT   CONCLUSIONS        241 

interpretation  of  the  ultimate  facts  of  life.  Inter- 
pretations change  age  by  age.  The  universe,  sat- 
urated with  divine  thought  and  throbbing  with 
divine  life,  remains  the  same.  We  walk  in  the  midst 
of  revelations.  We  receive  what  we  are  able  to 
understand. 

It  must  happen,  therefore,  that  there  is  a  history 
of  religion  if  there  is  a  history  of  the  development 
of  man.  Bring  Plato  back  and  let  him  know  the 
language  of  any  savage  and  yet  he  cannot  talk 
philosophy  to  the  savage  for  two  reasons.  One  is 
the  savage  would  not  understand,  but  the  practical 
difficulty  would  be  that  the  language  of  the  savage 
would  have  no  words  to  convey  Plato's  thoughts. 
If  Plato  could  not  interpret  himself  to  a  savage, 
how  can  we  expect  that  the  Eternal  Reason  is  ever 
able  to  perfectly  express  Himself  to  human  minds 
or  in  human  speech? 

The  expression  of  religion  by  means  of  religious 
institutions,  therefore,  has  no  finality.  Men  will 
always  seek  to  clothe  their  faith  in  new  garments. 
The  voices  of  new  prophets  will  continue  to  be 
heard,  and  new  messages  will  cheer  the  hearts  of 
men.  But  in  the  struggle  and  conflict  of  all  the 
ages,  in  the  agonies  of  sorrow  and  in  the  terrors  of 
death  the  great  thoughts  of  God,  Immortality,  and 
Retribution  have  been  capable  of  survival.  If  the 
16 


242 


RELIGION   IN    THE   MAKING 


senses  of  men  correspond  to  the  physical  world  so 
that  they  may  be  trusted,  how  much  more  do  the 
souls  of  men  correspond  also  to  the  vaster  and  more 
real  world  of  spirit  and  fact. 

The  awkward  savage  may  make  a  crude  sketch 
of  a  tree  while  the  accomplished  artist  may  repro- 
duce it  with  perfect  fidelity.  It  is  the  same  tree. 
The  savage  receives  the  revelation  of  God  with  as 
much  mind  and  skill  as  he  possesses.  The  philo- 
sophic saint  interprets  him  under  the  noblest  forms 
of  thought  and  passion.  It  is  the  same  God.  Rites 
superstitious,  or  even  cruel,  may  surround  the  early 
forms  of  worship  among  barbaric  men.  The  noblest 
music  and  the  finest  speech  may  assist  the  devotions 
of  the  civilized  worshiper.  It  is  one  religion,  how- 
ever diverse  in  form,  one  effort  to  recognize  and 
strengthen  the  human  relations  with  the  divine 
being.  If  the  Hebrew  people  had  left  us  nothing 
but  the  memory  of  their  struggle,  they  would  have 
left  us  rich.  The  knowledge  that  once  in  human 
history  the  whole  genius  of  a  people  was  spent  in 
search  after  God  is  enough  to  prove  that  mankind 
is  not  wholly  base.  If  they  had  not  given  their  con- 
ceptions glorious  form  and  expression ;  if  their  poets 
and  prophets  had  not  hymned  the  sweetest  music, 
yet  the  conception  of  what  life  really  is  and  what  it 
really  means,  the  system  of  values  which  they  have 


SOME   RESULTANT    CONCLUSIONS         243 

bequeathed  to  us,  would  still  leave  them  the  leaders 
of  the  race.  It  is  true  there  was  change  and  prog- 
ress in  the  course  of  their  religious  development, 
and  this  makes  that  history  the  more  glorious.  Not 
to  them  any  more  than  to  us  did  the  oracles  of  God 
speak  to  unwilling  hearts  and  minds.  The  search 
after  God  was  a  noble  and  difficult  quest  not  because 
He  would  escape  them,  but  because  only  as  they 
developed  by  struggle  were  they  able  to  perceive 
Him  or  understand  His  voice.  The  Hebrew  history 
is  a  part  of  the  final  civilization  of  the  world.  To 
the  men  of  vision  the  world  has  always  owed  its 
debt.  More  than  the  marvels  of  Greece  or  the  more 
hoary  antiquities  of  Egypt,  more  than  the  accuracies 
of  modern  science  or  the  inventions  of  modern  in- 
dustry, are  these  messages  out  of  the  Hebrew  cen- 
turies to  every  man  and  woman  who  wishes  to  think 
truly  and  to  live  nobly. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

It  would  be  quite  impossible  to  give  a  full  list  of 
the  works  bearing  upon  the  problems  which  have 
been  discussed,  but  I  name  the  following  as  among 
those  which  have  been  useful  to  me  in  my  studies : 

Politics  Aristotle 
Philosophic    der    Geschichte    als    So- 

ciologie  Barth,  Paul 

The  Basis  of  Social   Relations  Brinton,  Daniel  G. 

Evolution  of  Religion  Caird,   Edzvard 

Introduction    to    the    Philosophy  of 

Religion  Caird,  John 

The  Origin  and  Religious  Content  of 

the  Psalter  Cheyne,  T.  K. 

Introduction  a  la  Sociologie  De  Greef,  G. 

An  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of 

the  Old  Testament.  Driver,  S.  R. 

De  la  Division  du  Travail  Social  Durkeim,    Emile 
Les    Regies   de   la   Methode    Sociolo- 

gique  Durkeim,    Emile 

The  Golden  Bough  Eraser,  J.   G. 

Principles  of  Sociology  Giddings,  F.  H. 

Inductive  Sociology  Giddings,  F.  H. 

Descriptive  Sociology  Giddings,  F.  H. 

Der  Rassenkampf  Gumplowics,  L. 

Outlines  of  Sociology  Gumplowics,  L. 

Philosophy  of  Religion  Hegel,  G.  W.  F. 

Kulturpflanzen  und  Hausthiere  Hehen,  Victor 

Antiquities  Joscphus 

Les  Selections  Sociales  Lapouge,  G.  Vacher 

Sociology  Letourneau,  C. 

244 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


245 


Gedanketi  uber  den  Social  Wissen- 
schaft  der  Zukunft 

Outlines  of  a  Philosophy  of  Religion 

Introduction  to   Social   Philosophy 

Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Religion 

Sacred  Books  of  the  East 

Philosophy  and  Development  of  Re- 
ligion 

Cultes,  Mythes  et  Religions 

History  of  the  People  of  Israel 

Foundations  of  Sociology 

Conception  of  God 

Bau  und  Leben  des  Socialen  Korpers 

General  Sociology 

Historical  Geography  in  the  Holy 
Land 

Old  Testament  in  the  Jewish  Church 

The  Religion  of  the  Semites 

Prophets  of  Israel 

First  Principles 

Principles  of  Sociology 

History  of  the  Jewish  Church 

Die  Soziale  Frage  im  Lichte  der 
Philosophic 

Les  Lois  de  ITmitation 

La  Logique  Sociale 

Primitive  Culture 

Dynamic  Sociology 

Psychic  Factors  of  Civilization 

Pure  Sociology 

History  of  Israel 

Analytical  Concordance 

Encyclopedia  Biblica 

Jewish  Encyclopedia 

Dictionary  of  the  Bible 


Lilienfeld,  P.   von 
Lotze,   Hermann 
Mackenzie,  John  S. 
Muller^  Max 
Miiller^  Max 

Piieiderer,    Otto 
Reinach,  S. 
Re  nan,  Ernest 
Ross,  Edward   A, 
Royce,   Josiah 
SchdMe,  A. 
Small,  Albion  W. 

Smith,  G.  A. 
Smith,  W.  R. 
Smith,  W.  R. 
Smith,  W.  R. 
Spencer,  Herbert 
Spencer,  Herbert 
Stanley,  A.  P. 

Stein,  Ludwig 
Tarde,    Gabriel 
Tarde,  Gabriel 
Tylor,  Edw.  B. 
Ward,  Lester  F. 
Ward,  Lester  F. 
Ward,  Lester  F. 
Wellhausen,  I. 
Young 

Cheyne   &   Black 
Singer 
Hastings 


INDEX 


Aaron,  priesthood  of,  p.  lOO 
Abraham  offering  Isaac,  p. 

69 
Abram,    appearance    of    the 

Lord  to,  p.  68 
Altar  at  Bethel,  p.  115,  120 
Altar,    development    of,    p. 

115 
Altar  not  Hebrew  alone,  p. 

141 
Altars  erected  in  any  place 

of  significance,  p.  116 
Altars,  materials  for,  p.  117 
Altars  upon  roofs  of  houses, 

p.   120 
Amulets,  wearing  of,  p.  196 
Ark   a   holy  shrine,   p.    186 
Ark    a    symbol    of    divine 

presence,  p.  183 
Ark   a   leader  in   battle,   p. 

181 
Ark,  contents  of,  p.   186 
Ark   the    central    object    in 
Holy  of  Holies  of  Solo- 
mon's  Temple,  p.   184 
Ark    the    most     significant 
object     in     the     religious 
furniture   of  Hebrews,  p. 
180 
Art,  history  of,  p.  60 
Ascetic  element  not  strong- 
ly    marked     in     Hebrew 
religion,  p.  157 


Ashera,   or  sacred   post,   p. 

193 
Atonement,  law  of,  p.   174 
Azazel,    offering  to,   p.    174 

Baal  the  god  of  the  culti- 
vated land,  p.  83 
Babel,   the   story   of,   p.   ^y 
Bible,    devotional    study   of, 

p.   Z2> 
Bible,    historical    study    of, 

p.  ZZ 
Bible,  literary  point  of  view 

of,  p.  34 
Bible,  material  of,  p.  48 
Bible,  progress  in,  p.  10 
Biblical  critic,  p.  4 
Blasphemy,  Hebrew  idea  of, 

P-    ^Z 
Brazen   serpent   one  of  the 

unique  objects   in   history 

of  Israel,  p.   194 
Buzzard,  worship  of,  p.  220 

Canaan,  language  of,  p.   50 
Character    shaped    by    con- 
ditions under  which  people 
live,    p.    41 
Church  and  state,  p.  29 
Church,    significance    of    in 
Hebrew    life,   p.   38 


247 


248 


INDEX 


Church,  supremacy  of  in 
ancient   Egypt,  p.    91 

Clean  and  unclean  a  cer- 
monial   law,   p.    222 

Clean  and  unclean  among 
the    Hebrews,   p.    222 

Complex  life  always  order- 
ly, p.  93 

David  a  true  servant  of 
Jehovah,  p.   94 

Development  of  priesthood 
follows  order  of  develop- 
ment   of  other   offices,  p. 

94 

Divinations  connected  with 
function  of  priest  rather 
than    prophet,    p.    112 

Division  of  labor  indicates 
a  universal  law,  p.  93 

Eden  story  ancient  in  sub- 
stance,  p.   219 

Elijah    and   politics,    p.    112 

Elijah  the  greatest  of  the 
prophets,  p.  85 

Elohim,    significance    of,    p. 

64 
Environment,    in   life    of    a 

people,   p.    9 
Environment,     man     makes 

changes  in,  p.  47 
Environment      not      chiefly 

physical,  p.  52 
Ephod  of  high  priest,  p.  188 
Ephod  used  as  oracle,  p.  189 
Ethnologist,  the,   p.   6 
Evolutionist,  the,  p.  5 


Exile,  effect  of  upon  politi- 
cal  fortunes  of   Israel,   p. 

133 
Exiles,     return     of     under 
Ezra,  p.   134 

Fast    and    feast    of    Purim, 

p.   160 
Fasting,  attitude  of  prophets 

toward,  p.   160 
Fasting   more    than    a    sign 

of   mourning,    p.    159 
Fasting,  value  of,  p.  158 
Feast  of  New  Moon,  p.  173 
Feast    of    Sheep    Shearing, 

p.   173 

Feast  of   Trumpets,   p.    175 

Feasts,  character  of  in  time 
of  Samuel,  p.  155 

Festivals  of  Passover,  Pen- 
tecost and  Tabernacles,  p. 
167-8-9 

Freedom  of  priestly  service 
shown  by  Elijah  and 
Ahaz,  p.  97 

Genesis  bears  mark  of  great 

antiquity,  p.  228 
Gideon,  angel  appears  to,  p. 

80 
Greek  monotheism,  p.  59 

Hagar,    story   of,    p.   69 
Hebrew   history    a    part    of 

the    final    civilization     of 

the  world,   p.   243 
Hebrew  history  differs  from 

every  other,  p.  62 


INDEX 


249 


Hebrew  religious  life, 
methods  of  expression,  p. 

9 

Hebrews,   genesis   of,   p.   50 

Hebrews  inferior  to  neigh- 
boring nations,  p.  234 

Hebrews  not  alone  in  pos- 
session of  a  Holy  of 
Holies,   p.    128 

Hebron  one  of  the  sacred 
places,    p.    116 

Hezekiah,  reformation  un- 
der,  p.   123 

High  place  the  holy  place, 
p.    122 

High  places  condemned  by 
the  prophets,  p.    126 

High  places  identified  with 
idolatry  by  Ezekiel,  p.  124 

High  places  of  Canaanitish 
origin,  p.   123 

High  places,  significance  of, 
p.    121 

High  places,  value  of  to 
Semites,   p.    121 

High  places  visited  by  Saul, 
p.   122 

High  priest,  garment  of,  p. 
188 

Hills  and  mountains,  sig- 
nificance of,  p.  81 

History,  genetic  idea  of,  p. 

ID 

History  of  idea  of  God 
parallel  with  social  history 
of  Israel,  p.  85 

Human  interpretation,  value 
of,  p.  10 


Idea  of  God,  changes  in,  p. 
57 

Idea  of  God,  Immortality 
and  Retribution  capable 
of  survival,  p.   241 

Idea  of  God  the  essence  of 
every   religion,    p.    28 

Idea  of  God  the  soul  of 
the  Hebrew  religion,  p. 
9,  32 

Idea  of  one  God  the  great 
gift  to  the  world  by  He- 
brews,   p.    233 

Ideas  and  institutions  in 
the  development  of  re- 
ligion, p.  30 

Influence  of  group  upon 
group,    p.    19 

Israel  related  to  great 
peoples,   p.    51 

Jacob,     appearance    of    the 

Lord  to,  p.  70 
Jehovah,  relation  of  to  the 

land,  p.  77 
Jehovah  the  fire  god,  p.  71 
Jehovah    the    god    of    the 

hills,   p.  81 
Jehovah    the    sacred    name, 

p.  64,  65 
Jerusalem     the     holy     city 

after    time    of    David,    p. 

139 
Josiah,    refbrmation    of,    p. 

1 10,   120 
Joshua  only  a  lesser  Moses, 

p.  76 


250 


INDEX 


Judges,   Book  of,  p.   78 

King  and  priest  in  one 
person  when  David  ap- 
pears, p.  96 

Law  of  Moses,  p.  227,  228 
Laws  grew   age   by   age   in 

number  and  exactness,  p. 

93 
Levi,   development   of  tribe 

of,  p.   102 
Levi,     priests    belonged    to 

tribe   of,   p.    100,    102 
Lot,    appearance    of    angels 

to,  p.   68 

Man  not  the  only  social  be- 
ing,  p.   23 

Man  the  only  animal  that 
has  a  religion,  p.  24 

March  of  the  race  toward 
opportunity  and  freedom, 
p.  22 

Micah,  case  of,  p.  99 

Moabite  stone,  p.  50 

Moon,  phases  of  early  cele- 
brated,  p.    197 

Moses,  appearance  of  God 
to,  p.  73 

Moses  at  Horeb,  p.  71 

Moses  lawgiver  and  judge 
as  well  as  priest,  p.  98 

Moses  the  priest  of  the  tent 
of   meeting,  p.   98 

Naaman,  case  of,  p.  83 


Names,     importance    of    in 

Hebrew  record,  p.   63 
Nazarites,   vows   of,   p.   218 
New    Testament   not   avail- 
able for  sociological  study, 
P-   36 

Oriental  point  of  view,  p. 
8 

Palestine  a  highway  of  old 
civilizations,  p.  45 

Palestine,  climate  of,  p.  44 

Palestine,    fauna    of,    p.   44 

Palestine,  favorable  to  de- 
velopment of  great  breed 
of  men,   p.   48 

Palestine,  flora  of,  p.  44 

Palestine,  geography  of, 
p.  42,  43 

Palestine,  industrial  arts  of, 
p.  46 

Palestine,  mineral  resources 
of,  p.   44 

Palestine  when  first  inhab- 
ited, p.   49 

Paschal  feast  very  ancient, 
p.  172 

Philosophy  of  history  based 
upon    religion,   p.   86 

Polytheism  grows  out  of 
concreteness,   p.   61 

Prayer  preceded  sacrifice, 
p.   143 

Prayers  and  revelations  con- 
fined to  no  sacred  creed, 
P-  95 


INDEX 


2SI 


Priest  and  levites  carefully 
distinguished  after  the 
Exile,  p.  no 

Priest,  function  of  com- 
pared to  that  of  Greek 
oracles,  p.   103 

Priest,  function  of  not  the 
same  throughout  history, 
p.   102 

Priest  must  be  a  man  of 
patriotism,  p.   103 

Priest  stands  for  insti- 
tutions,  p.   231 

Priesthood,  final  develop- 
ment of,  p.  104,  105 

Priests  the  lawyers  and 
sometimes  judges  of 
Israel,   p.    103 

Prophet's  attitude  in  mat- 
ter of  ritual,  p.  178 

Prophets  deal  with  untried, 
p.    232 

Prophets,  development  of, 
p.    no 

Prophets  had  a  special  place 
in    Second   Law,    p.    m 

Prophets'  messages  ethical, 
p.    113 

Psychical  factors  in  human 
development,  p.  54 

Race  problem,  p.   53 

Relation  of  religious  order 
to  political  order  one  of 
the  great  facts  of  history, 
p.    29 


Religion  a  human  experi- 
ence primary  and  univer- 
sal, p.  58 

Religion,  beginnings  of,  p. 
12 

Religion,  definitions  of,  p. 
25,  26 

Religion  has  its  expense 
account,   p.    30 

Resemblances,   social,   p.    19 

Righteousness  of  standard 
the  second  contribution 
of  Hebrews  to  the  world, 
p.    236 

Sabbath    a    festival    of   joy, 

p.    201 
Sabbath  a  legacy  from  the 

Hebrews  to  the  world,  p. 

209 
Sabbath   a    sign,   p.   200 
Sabbath    keeping    a    moral 

obligation       among      the 

Jews,  p.  205 
Sabbath,  origin  of  obscure, 

p.    197 
Sabbath,    prophets'    attitude 

toward,  p.  205 
Sabbath  the  great  ritual  day 

of    the    Hebrews,    p.    202 
Sacred   stone   as   an   article 

used    in    worship,    p.    192 
Sacrifice     (human)     among 

the    Hebrews,    p.    i53 
Sacrifice  as  atonement  came 

late  in  the  history,  p.  173 


2$2 


INDEX 


Sacrifice,  development  of,  p. 

143 

Sacrifice,  fruits  of  the  earth 
the  oldest  form  of,  p.  144 

Sacrifice  in  celebration  of 
victory  over  enemies,  p. 
150 

Sacrifice  not  confined  to 
head  of  family  in  begin- 
ning,  p.   95 

Sacrifice  not  offered  in  Wil- 
derness, p.   149 

Sacrifice  of  Cain  and  Abel, 
p.   147 

Sacrifice  of  Iphigenia,  p.  153 

Sacrifice  of  Jephthah's 
daughter,  p.  152,  153 

Sacrifice   of   Saul's   sons,  p. 

154 
Sacrifice,    the     ritual    of    a 

development,    p.    147 
Samson,    history    of,    p.    80 
Samuel    a    prophet   as    well 

as  politician  and  judge,  p. 

Ill 
Sanctity,  idea  of  in  Israel, 

210,  211 
Sanctuaries,  where  they  ex- 
isted,    in     charge     of     a 

priest,   p.  98 
Scapegoat,    offering    of,    p. 

174 
Scientific    study    of    human 

kind,  p.  7 
Second  temple  an  imitation 

of    Solomon's,    p.    135 
Shechem  one  of  the  sacred 

places,  p.    118 


Shelomith,  sin  of,  p.  64 
Sin,    Greek    conception    of, 

p.  28 
Sin,    Hebrew    sense    of,    p. 

28 
Social  development,  tenden- 
cies of,  p.  21 
Social  group,  size  of,  p.   17 
Social  group,  soul  of,  p.  18 
Social  group,  strength  of,  p. 

18 
Social  groups,  fashioned  by 

place,  p.  19 
Society,  industrial  form  of, 

p.    39 
Society,  military  type  of,  p. 

39 
Sociological  method  applied 

to    facts    of   Hebrew   life, 

p.   38 
Sociology,    definition    of,   p. 

16 
Sociology,  science  of,  p.   15 
Solomon  continued  functions 

of  priest,  p.  96 
Solomon's    temple,    descrip- 
tion of,   p.    129 
Solomon's    temple   the    first 

in   Jerusalem,   p.    128 
Song  of  Deborah,  p.  80 
State,  beginnings   of,   p.    12 
Study    of   the    group,    p.    7 
Sun    worship    one     of    the 

early     manifestations     of 

religion,  p.  70 
Surplus    food    necessary   to 

civilization,   p.    17 


INDEX 


253 


Synagogue,  functions   of,  p. 

140 
Synagogue,  meaning  of  the, 

p.    140 

Taboo,  a  survival  of  primi- 
tive faith,  p.  218 

Tarde,  Gabriel,  p.   55 

Temple  built  by  Herod,  p. 
136,   137 

Temple,  plunderings  of,  p. 
132 

Temple,  ritual  of,  p.  162, 
163,  164,  165,  166 

Temple,  story  of,  p.  127 


Ten  Commandments  for  use 
of  Hebrews  among  them- 
selves,  p.  210 
Totem  idea,  p.  220 
Totem  pole,  p.  219,  220 
Tradition,    men    of,    p.    3 
Trees,  sacred,  p.  118 

Universe   a  library   of  per- 
fect revelation,  p.  62 

Warde,  Lester  F.,  p.  54 

Zadok,  house  of,  p.   loi 


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